Excitement builds in Soelden for opening World Cup races
The two days prior to the Soelden races are possibly the busiest time off the slopes for both the athletes and media, as the press conference schedule tends to take up most of Thursday and Friday.
This year the first event not to be missed was Eurosport’s presentation of an exclusive documentary about Bode Miller where the American veteran opened his home to the cameras and shared with viewers some of his life off the slopes. Miller, who in the past years has become more involved with horse racing spoke extensively of his newly found passion and shared his plans of using the knowledge collected over his ski racing career to create a revolutionary training facility for race horses.
“When thinking of what to do after ski racing I was trying to find something which could ‘replace’ the thrill of it, even though I know nothing will be able to really replace it,” said Miller. “In horse racing I found something that would allows me to continue to focus on every detail, like I do in skiing. Skiing is still my main focus and horse racing is definitely my second one.”
Later in the day the HEAD press conference drew a large crowds to the Freizeit Arena to hear some of the top athletes on the tour talk about their summers and their plans and goals for the season. This was the opportunity for HEAD to present Sweden’s André Myhrer and France’s Alexis Pinturault who both recently joined the team, which will hopefully increase the brand’s chances to be successful in slalom as well.
“We will try to have HEAD on a slalom podium in Levi already,” said a smiling Myhrer.
“To win the overall is not yet a goal because it is really difficult to say at the beginning of the winter how fast you are compared to the others, but I am prepared for it,” noted Pinturault who finished third in the overall last season. “I will for sure try my best but with all the really good guys around, it will be not be easy.”
The day continued with Audi’s presentation of their partner teams which is a great opportunity to chat with the athletes in the relaxed environment of the Gigi Tenne. The last stop of the day was the traditional presentation of the Milka Girls that was held at the Bergland Hotel along with the announcement of a prestigious award.
Austria’s 25-year-old Anna Fenninger was selected as the ‘Skieur d’Or-AIJS’ for the 2013-14 season by a large majority of members of the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS) becoming the 15th woman to receive that award a year after Slovenia’s Tina Maze.
Only true ski legends starting with the Goitschel sisters in 1964 were named by the most established ski reporters since the start of the award in 1963 – Egon Zimmermann from Lech am Arlberg being the first recipient of the celebrated AIJS trophy.
One of the most promising junior competitors a few years ago, Fenninger fully confirmed her huge potential last winter, just three years after capturing an unexpected gold medal in super combined at the 2011 World Championships. The champion from south of Salzburg, who made her World Cup debut at the 2006 Finals in Are, Sweden (as a new junior world champion), celebrated a sensational triumph in the 2014 overall World Cup standings at Lenzerheide a few weeks after collecting Olympic gold in super G at Sochi.
A very complete skier excelling in the speed events and in giant slalom, Fenninger is a great fighter on snow. Yet she also proved her generosity and her good heart a few years ago when she decided to defend the cause of cheetahs in Namibia thru the organization of #savethecheetah. She participates in many promotional activities each years to help the cause of these superb wild animals, including producing a very nice calendar successfully sold on the internet.
The reporters from the World Cup greatly enjoy talking with her before and after the races and record her mostly interesting comments on her life and her career. Fenninger was fully deserving of the ‘AIJS-Skieur d’Or’ award as a charismatic role model and accessible athlete who surely still has a lot more to achieve in the coming seasons.
A total of 16 racers received votes from members of the AIJS this fall including USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher who tied for second place in this year’s election. Also nominated were Ted Ligety (USA), Matthias Mayer (AUT) Mario Matt (AUT), Felix Neureuther (GER), Tina Maze (SLO), Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR), Marlies Schild (AUT), Patrick Kueng (SUI), Tina Weirather (LIC), Dominique Gisin (SUI), Jan Hudec (CAN), Bode Miller (USA) and Maria Hoefl-Riesch (GER).
Release courtesy of FIS