Germany’s slalom ace Linus Straßer also won the Schladming World Cup three days after his success in Kitzbühel. The Munich player prevailed in the floodlit slalom on Wednesday evening and underlined his dazzling form. In partly pouring rain at the 2013 World Cup venue, the 31-year-old won ahead of Timon Haugan from Norway (+0.28 seconds) and the Frenchman Clement Noel (+1.02). In the World Cup standings, he reduced the gap to the leading Austrian Manuel Feller to 132 points.
“Kitzbühel won, Schladming won: That’s unbelievable,” said Straßer. “These are moments for a lifetime, as I said in Kitzbühel. I’m just enjoying it now.” Straßer didn’t let the external conditions stop him in his fifth World Cup victory. “Earlier in football, my games were the ones where things got dirty,” joked the winner on Bavarian television.
“I was completely with myself at the start”
He already managed an excellent first run and achieved the best time. “At the start I was completely with myself, completely focused on the matter. I had a plan of how I wanted to approach it and fully implemented it,” said the Munich native. The victory three days earlier on the slope in Kitzbühel where he had once learned to ski and competed in his first children’s races was a relief for Straßer. “No one will take it from me anymore,” he said in Schladming, before adding: “But it doesn’t help me today either.”
Last year the TSV 1860 Munich athlete was eliminated in Schladming, but in 2022 he won. With his fifth World Cup victory – before his four slaloms, Straßer had also won a parallel competition in January 2017 – the pole artist caught up with Thomas Dreßen in the German best list.
The speed specialist ended his career in Kitzbühel at the weekend. Only Felix Neureuther (13), Markus Wasmeier (9) and Armin Bittner (7) celebrated more World Cup successes among men in this country. Since Bittner in January 1990, no German has won two consecutive World Cup slaloms.
Achim Dreis, Kitzbühel Published/Updated: Recommendations: 14 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Achim Dreis, Wengen Published/Updated: Recommendations: 10
Sebastian Holzmann from Allgäu was the second German driver in the final and ended up in 19th place. Anton Tremmel (41st) and World Cup debutant Nikolaus Pföderl (53rd) missed the second round.
