At the first World Cup slalom of the Alpine ski season in Gurgl, Austria, activists caused an interruption shortly before the race was decided. Several people ran into the finish area on Saturday and smeared orange paint on the snow. They held banners in their hands with the call: “Listen to the Climate Council”.
The Last Generation group posted a video on Service X – formerly Twitter – showing eight activists smearing paint and holding up banners. “Today we are taking our protest to the World Cup slope,” it said.
The Alpine World Cup has long been the focus of climate activists because the World Ski Federation FIS is given too little credibility in the sustainability discussion. Security forces then led the protesters away, and at least one person was dragged from the finish line lying down.
The area was then cleaned of paint – while the remaining five drivers had to wait at the start for their second run. Fans acknowledged the action with boos, and top driver Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway also cursed wildly at the activists.
Manuel Feller finally took the first win of the ski winter with an Austrian triple success ahead of Marco Schwarz (+0.23) and Michael Matt (+1.05).
Linus Straßer clearly missed the podium place he was hoping for, but managed a top 10 result. Straßer made a serious mistake in the first round shortly after the start, which cost him a lot of time, and as a result he only came 14th in the intermediate rankings. In the second run, the 31-year-old managed to work his way to the front. The Munich native still finished in ninth place, 1.56 seconds behind the leaders.
Purely in terms of placement, the result was “very disappointing,” said Straßer on BR television. But there was “very, very good stuff” in terms of skiing. “I knew before the race that I wasn’t quite at the level I wanted to be at to be at the front. But they are good steps, I’m on the right track.”
Florian Richter Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 5 A comment from Achim Dreis Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Achim Dreis Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
Sebastian Holzmann (Oberstdorf/+2.05) was 15th. The other German starters Fabian Himmelsbach (Sonthofen), Anton Tremmel (Rottach-Egern) and World Cup debutant Linus Witte (Bad Aibling) all failed to finish in the first run.
