Are: Raich hopes to elevate Austrian men in GS

The first Norwegian to win the downhill at an alpine skiing World Championships is now focusing on the more commonplace goal of winning Wednesday’s giant slalom title.
ARE, Sweden — The first Norwegian to win the downhill at an alpine skiing World Championships is now focusing on the more commonplace goal of winning Wednesday’s giant slalom title.
    Aksel Lund Svindal, who leads the World Cup overall and discipline standings after winning a GS and posting two other podium results this season, could become the third Norwegian skier to win a giant slalom world title.
    “Coming here, I felt the GS was my best chance at a medal,” the 24-year-old Svindal said. “I still think it’s my best event.”
    Lasse Kjus won the title in 1999 at Vail, Colorado, and Kjetil Andre Aamodt triumphed in 1993 at Morioka, Japan. No Norwegian women have ever won the title.
    Still winless in Are, Austria’s men have only two silvers, one from overall champion Benjamin Raich in the combined and the other from Fritz Strobl in the super G.
    The team is pinning its hopes on Raich.
    The Olympic giant slalom champion struggled in the discipline early in the season but finally recaptured his golden touch last month, winning the last GS before the championships.
    “There’s been a lot of talk how the ‘Power Team’ has no gold but I feel relaxed. I have my silver,” Raich said. “We have two medals and the worlds are not a wishing-contest. You can’t just wish for it to happen.”
    The two-time World Cup champion in the discipline is looking for the only major GS title missing from his rèsumè. He came close at the last worlds at Bormio, Italy, in 2005 when he claimed silver.
    “There are a lot of arguments supporting my winning a medal in GS,” said Raich, who won the giant slalom in Are last year at the World Cup Finals.
    Defending champion Hermann Maier was confident Raich would give Austria a gold medal.
    “Many favorites have failed to win here but Benni will do it,” said Maier, still winless this season.
    Giant slalom is Maier’s favorite discipline, and he won it at the 1998 Olympics. But the Herminator has struggled in the gate discipline since his 2001 motorcycle accident that nearly cost him a leg.
    His last giant slalom victory came two years ago when he shocked the field by winning the title at Bormio.
    “I have to make something impossible possible,” Maier said. “I’m even more of an outsider than in Bormio.”
    Maier, who had not practiced the discipline since the last race at Adelboden, Switzerland, five weeks ago, finally trained for the GS on Tuesday. Maier couldn’t train before because of all the race postponements and changes in scheduling.
    Kalle Palander, who won the tough Alta Badia, Italy, giant slalom, is looking to recapture the title he won in 1999.
    Massimiliano Blardone of Italy, winner of the season-opening giant slalom, is aiming to convert years of promise into gold.
    Bode Miller, still medal-less in Are, as usual was optimistic. “I haven’t skied it forever but we’re going to get some training the next few days and hopefully we’ll figure some stuff out,” the American said. “The last races I was there. We just had really tough conditions. I’m definitely ready to compete.”
    The Swedes, who have enjoyed an abundant medal haul with Anja Paerson winning all three women’s races so far and Patrik Jaerbyn taking unexpected bronze in downhill, have few chances in the men’s GS. Their best hope is Markus Larsson.
    Jens Byggmark, who won back-to-back slaloms in Kitzbühel, Austria, and placed second in Schladming, Austria, said his confidence from the slalom hasn’t spread into the GS.
    “I’ve been really bad in every race this year,” Byggmark said. “If the snow conditions are right then I can ski really fast, but when it’s like in competitions, real hard and icy, it’s not working really for me.”

— The Associated Press