Are: Notebook: Swan songs for Goetschl, Strobl?

ARE, Sweden — Austrian greats Renate Goetschl and Fritz Strobl each said after Tuesday’s super G races that these World Championships are likely their last.
ARE, Sweden — Austrian greats Renate Goetschl and Fritz Strobl each said after Tuesday’s super G races that these World Championships are likely their last.
    Strobl, who started in place of teammate Michael Walchhofer in a somewhat controversial coach's decision, validated that choice with a silver medal in the super G, the first worlds medal of his career. He earned the Olympic gold in downhill in 2002 and has nine World Cup wins in better than 10 years on the tour.
    “I think these are my last World Championship. I don’t know how long I will ski,” Strobl said at the postrace press conference. “If I have fun, maybe I’ll ski next year. If I can’t give more power, maybe I’ll quit.”
    Strobl hopes to race in Saturday’s downhill, but that decision won’t be made by Austria’s coaches until after Wednesday’s training run.
    Goetschl, who’s been racing World Cup for 10 years, said next year would probably be her last. She doesn’t have another World Championships in her, she said Tuesday.
    “For sure this will be my last championships,” she said. “I can look at the last years with pride. I have a good career behind me and hope to make some good results in the next races.”
    Goetschl quipped that she isn’t getting any younger, and if she’d had a more successful season than last year, then maybe she would have retired.
    “Last season wasn’t good for me. My goal was to have a better season than the last one,” she said. “I’m really happy and I enjoy it. I got my fun back and that was important for me.”
    Goetschl must be glad she didn’t quit after last season. She’s in contention for discipline titles in both super G and downhill and is gunning for her second overall title (2000 champion).
    “I think one more year and that’s that’s OK,” she said.
    COURSE WORKERS PRAISED: A number of racers praised the backbreaking work of the volunteer course crews. Dawn broke with blue skies and a visible sun for the first time in a long time Tuesday, and the super G races were made possible only after tons of snow were cleared on the racecourses.
    “I’m very proud of all the hardworking people,” said super G gold medalist Anja Paerson. “It’s easy for us to come down and talk about the snow and everything, but we don’t know how much effort there is behind a race.
    “Maybe once we should be a volunteer and see how much work there is to do.”
     “I’m pretty shocked at how good [the course] was,” American Scott Macartney said. “The snow is in excellent shape. They must have worked their ass off the past few days.”
    Macartney said it was clear to him why the men’s super G start had to be moved down the hill from its original location.
     “If you go to the very top and see that building up there where the snowdrifts are, some are 6 meters high,” he said. “They did a great job getting things ready.”
    “I think the workers did a great job on the [racecourse],” Fritz Strobl said. “It was a big challenge to make the slope like what we had today.”
    BRIT TAKES RELAXING ICE BATHS: Great Britain’s Chemmy Alcott didn’t have her best run in the women’s super G on Tuesday, despite the perfect conditions, she said.
    “The course is really good. I was excited to go for it,” said Alcott, who finished 28th. “You just can’t make mistakes on this hill. I felt I lost speed on the traverses.”
    Perhaps Alcott didn’t sink into enough cold water before her race. That’s right. This Brit spends afternoons and evenings in ice baths to help her racer legs feel fresher.
    “It just works for me,” she said.
    Alcott, who trains in Salzburg, Austria, said she’s stuck mostly with racing and has held off on the heavy training because she had surgery on her feet last year.  
    Who was her money on Tuesday?
    “… Goetschl and maybe Mancuso, but she’s had some shin pain … we’ll see,” Alcott said.