The farewell cake for “skiing legend Thomas Dreßen” shows a lovingly decorated marzipan downhill skier – with glasses, poles, helmet and black, red and gold arm stripes in front of a mighty white mountain.
The shot at chocolate gives the 30-year-old’s bitter farewell to the Ski World Cup a sweet touch – but it cannot cover up the sadness of the unfinished man who no longer wants to torture himself because of his many problems with his shoulders, hips and knees. “I will no longer sacrifice my frame for the sake of cucumbering,” he said in the typical Thomas Dreßen tone.
Cake greeting: Sweet skier farewell: Image: private
Dreßen already skipped the downhill on Friday, which the Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin won in 1:55.75 minutes ahead of Florian Schieder (+0.05 seconds) from Italy and the Swiss Marco Odermatt (+0.34). He only wants to compete again at the highlight of the season, the traditional Hahnenkamm downhill run this Saturday (11.30 a.m.).
Exactly six years to the day before his planned farewell performance, Dreßen appeared like a comet in the ski sky when he won the downhill run on the Streif on January 20, 2018 and secured the status of an eternal German sports hero. With four more World Cup victories, he underlined his skills and his claim that he was not a “one-hit wonder”.
The gap has been yawning for a long time
Dreßen also woke up his speed colleagues from their lethargy and conveyed the will to win: Josef Ferstl’s Kitzbühel success in the Super-G in 2019 and the two silver medals for Andreas Sander and Romed Baumann at the 2021 World Cup testified to an unexpected period of glory for the German downhill team behind the draft horse Dreßen. “The gap that Thomas leaves behind is huge,” says coach Christian Schwaiger now – but basically the gap has been gaping for a long time.
Between March 2020 and November 2022, Dreßen was unable to compete in a single World Cup race. And his recent comeback this winter didn’t bring the hoped-for results either. An 18th place in the Super-G in Val Gardena was still his best result – and the rest of the team also weakened.
On Friday, Dominik Schwaiger (+1.35) and Simon Jocher (+1.36) showed with places 14 and 15 that there is still progress for the German downhill skiers. Baumann (+2.32), Ferstl (+2.60) and Sander (+3.18), however, once again finished far behind the top 30.
Dreßen never completely got the fateful fall from Beaver Creek in November 2018 with all its side effects out of his body – and probably not out of his head either. Torn cruciate ligaments and cartilage damage, hip problems and shoulder pain – for a 30-year-old, the construction sites are enormous.
“There is also life after sport,” he has now discovered. “After competitive sports,” one has to say more precisely. He wants to stay involved in the sport, not least so he can have fun in the snow with his daughter Elena.
Achim Dreis, Kitzbühel Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 5 Achim Dreis, Kirchberg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
He will strap on the racing skis just once more, on the slopes of his greatest success: “I want to have fun for myself again, soak it all up and enjoy it.” Just like the racing driver on the cake, who only has one flaw: he is wearing Starting number 20, but Dreßen had 19 at the time.
