What floodlights can do, only floodlights can do
This Wednesday, the men’s night slalom will take place for the 29th time in the Austrian ski sports center Schladming – or the “Night Race”, as it is better known for advertising purposes. It is the most visited race of the Alpine World Cup season, with up to 50,000 people crowding the slope. There is no lack of drama: in 1999, the Austrian Benni Raich catapulted himself from 23rd place to first place in the second round, in 2016, Felix Neureuther threaded onto a steep slope on the way to victory and remained sitting in the snow for minutes, and in 2018, the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen was pelted with snowballs when he dared to challenge national hero Marcel Hirscher.
Night slaloms have been part of the Alpine Ski World Cup program since 1997, with Schladming being the first. The events should appeal to a broader audience. Some such attempts failed miserably, especially the parallel slalom, which was blown up into a “city event” and was completely worthless in terms of sport. Fortunately, they no longer exist. The night slaloms, however, won the hearts of the spectators. The floodlights, legendary in football, also have their effect in ski racing. All eyes turn to the athletes, the world around them disappears. It will also be possible to watch races comfortably on a normal working day, either on site or in front of the television. This calculation by the International Ski Federation FIS worked out.
In addition to the night slalom in Schladming at the end of January, two more have been established in the World Cup program: one for women in Flachau and another for men in Madonna di Campiglio. Both will take place at the beginning of January.
This year’s race in Schladming has special significance. It is the last World Cup slalom before the Winter Olympics, which begin on February 6th. At the same time, it is already the ninth slalom of the season; After the Olympics there are only two more to go.
Slalom has been the most exciting discipline in the men’s World Cup since eight-time overall World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher retired in 2019. In the other three (giant slalom, super-G, downhill), the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who is following in Hirscher’s footsteps, has dominated for years. Odermatt won the overall World Cup for the past four years, and hardly anyone can challenge him for the ball again this year. The Slalom World Cup, however, has been won by four different runners in the past five years. Only Henrik Kristoffersen struck twice. This year’s season offers a similar picture: The eight slaloms of the season so far have been won by six different runners; only the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath and the French shooting star Paco Rassat were able to enter the winners’ list twice. A total of eleven athletes finished on the podium, including the Finn Eduard Hallberg and the Belgian Armand Marchant. In the Slalom World Cup standings, there are only 43 points between the leader, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who moved from the Norwegian to the Brazilian Ski Association last year, and Paco Rassat in fifth place. Between the two, Clément Noël, Atle Lie McGrath and Timon Haugan take places two to four.
Linus Straßer (TSV 1860 Munich) has been the best slalom skier in the German Ski Association (DSV) for years. This year’s season has been rather messed up so far; Straßer is currently only in twelfth place in the Slalom World Cup rankings. But in Kitzbühel, of all places, where he once learned to ski, he made an unexpected jump onto the podium last Sunday. In third place he was only behind the consistent Swiss Loïc Meillard and the Austrian Manuel Feller, who also got out of a crisis with his victory.
Schladming is a good place for Straßer. He won the night race in 2022 and 2024. Last year he led after the first round, but then fell back to fourth place, for which he blamed the course set by his own trainer Stefan Kogler. There was a debate in the DSV. No German coach wants to put in the second run this year.
