Austria-Switzerland rivalry heats up as Hahnenkamm downhill moves to Sunday

By Published On: January 20th, 2022Comments Off on Austria-Switzerland rivalry heats up as Hahnenkamm downhill moves to Sunday

Swiss racers and team leaders arrived in Kitzbühel this week with chips on their shoulders considering the results and an unusual ruling surrounding last week’s Lauberhorn downhill. Vincent Kriechmayr won the venerable Swiss race – leading five Austrians among the top 11 on Swiss snow – after a technicality was imposed to allow the Austrian to start.

The decades-old Austria versus Switzerland rivalry is poised to get hotter over the coming days as double downhills are scheduled on the traditionally icy, knee-rattling, Streif piste.

Organizers adjusted the Hahnenkamm weekend schedule on Wednesday as the first of two downhills will remain on Friday, however Saturday’s Hahnenkamm downhill has been swapped with Sunday’s slalom, due to potential snowfall and visibility issues in the forecast for Saturday. The Sunday race will now be held at the later start time of 1:45 pm local (7:45 am EST).

Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT). Keywords: course inspection. Photo: GEPA pictures

Kriechmayr enters the race among the favorites, having demonstrated his skill and stamina on the grueling 2.65-mile Lauberhorn track, winning in 2:26.09 following a bout with COVID-19, quarantine and tight timing in his return that prevented him from starting in one of the typically required training runs. The process to allow the 2021 world champion to start entailed a peculiar Friday morning “training run,” one day after Kriechmayr raced a super-G on the lower section of the course. FIS officials allowed him to push out of the downhill start, and then stop immediately, to satisfy the race requirements.

Seeking his fourth victory on the Swiss piste, Beat Feuz could only manage second, 0.34 seconds behind Kriechmayr, while his teammate and Wengen super-G winner Marco Odermatt was fourth, 0.46 off the winning pace.

Swiss racers will undoubtedly be seeking revenge on the infamous two-mile Streif track, which will be slightly modified to trim speeds and potential danger from the Hausberg Jump into the Traverse, approaching the bottom of the course (more on this later). Italian three-time Hahnenkamm champion Dominik Paris will be gunning for victory ‘numero quattro’ at this week’s 82nd edition of the Hahnenkamm races, although the overriding narrative could be a good old-fashioned Austria-Switzerland showdown.

Over the past 25 years, Austrians have won nine Kitzbühel downhills, one more than their Swiss rivals, who have eight.

Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) and Beat Feuz (SUI). Photo: GEPA pictures

Naturally, the Austrians will be ferociously defending their hallowed home turf from their Swiss opponents, at a storied ski racing mecca steeped in tradition, and arguably comparable to the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx or Big Ten college football power Michigan coldly welcoming Ohio State into the 100,000-capacity ‘Big House’ in Ann Arbor.

The traditional Hahnenkamm hype aside, these two races could shape up to be even more entertaining than the annual ‘Londoner Pub’ after-party, before COVID of course. Fans will be permitted, but limited to 1,000 persons seated in grandstands, and not strewn along the finish as usual, both on training and race days due to COVID-19 safety precautions.

Feuz’s starts in Kitzbühel were in question considering his partner’s pregnancy, however the four-time World Cup downhill champion announced the birth of his second child, Luisa, on Monday of this week. The 34-year-old Swiss downhill King aims to make it three consecutive downhill victories on the Streif, following back-to-back wins last January, in which he nipped Austrian Matthias Mayer and French veteran Johan Clarey, both wins coming by less than two-tenths of a second.

However, his first career Hahnenkamm triumph was marred by a scary crash involving teammate Urs Kryenbühl, which has provoked modifications to this year’s course. Feuz won a race that was cut to 30 racers because of gusty winds and dangerous conditions. The Swiss is astoundingly also seeking his sixth successive Kitzbühel downhill podium – the last time he missed out was in 2017.

The Austrian one-two punch of Mayer and Kriechmayr will be doing everything in their collective powers to force Feuz out of the spotlight on Friday and Sunday. Mayer, or “Mr. Consistency,” added a Hahnenkamm downhill title in 2020 to his Olympic downhill and super-G gold medals. The 31-year-old veteran is always prepared for the demanding test that the imposing Streif presents.

“Kitzbühel is something special every year – I have the feeling that every time I go to the start and see down the Mausefalle that it is an amazing race and an amazing place,” Mayer says, referring to the dramatic first jump that launches racers 50 or more meters through the air.

At least five Austrians enter the double downhills in solid form. Joining Mayer and Kriechmayr with worthy results in Wengen last Saturday were Otmar Striedinger (9th), Max Franz (10th), and Daniel Hemetberger (11th).

Streif crashes result in course changes

Considering Kryenbühl’s horrific crash as he approached the Streif finish line last January, organizers and FIS race directors will implement a course modification and revised gate set that will trim speeds and hopefully, ultimately, the danger on the lower portion of the course. Adding to the injury riddled race, American Ryan Cochran-Siegle suffered cervical spine fracture after his crash on the traverse below the Hausberg jump.

Speeds progressively increase as racers land off the Hausbergkante and attempt to swiftly maneuver left across the notoriously bumpy Traverse sidehill, before taking on a right-footed bump and the entrance into Zielschuss.

The Hausberg landing and subsequent compression leading to the Traverse often poses problems, as Aksel Lund Svindal experienced in 2016, tumbling into the right-side safety nets. Kryenbühl’s dramatic crash came later, having lost his balance and fallen backwards off the Zielsprung jump, however he was visibly lacking control earlier navigating the Traverse and never fully recovered.

Kryenbühl had to be lifted by helicopter, having suffered a concussion, a broken collarbone and torn internal and cruciate ligaments in his right knee.

A revised course set between the Hausberg compression and Traverse is designed to reduce speeds and allow racers greater control headed down the homestretch and off the Zielsprung jump. Depending upon tailwinds, racers generally approach the Streif finish line at speeds in excess of 140-kph.

A slightly lower gate set entering and along the traverse should do the trick as racers will be forced to take a more rounded route, closer to newly positioned safety netting, ultimately decreasing the risk factor and mitigating speeds approaching the finish.

For purists, the newly implemented lower course set will likely end any possibility of what fearless, risk-everything racers, like Swiss Didier Cuche, have been brazenly able to pull off. Cuche perfected an abrupt, hard left maneuver coming off the Hausberg, resulting in a conspicuously high line that shaved substantial time and was the catalyst to his five Hahnenkamm victories.

Kilde claims first training run

Training kicked off on Wednesday as Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde clocked the fastest time of 1:56.53, 0.22 seconds quicker then both Mayer and Italian veteran Matteo Marsaglia.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR). Photo: GEPA pictures

Kilde – whose best result here was ninth last season – seeks to become the fifth Norwegian to win the Hahnenkamm Downhill following Kjetil Jansrud (2015), Lasse Kjus (1999), Atle Skaardal (1990) and Astrid Sandvik (1959).

The new father Feuz held back and was 21st, 1.52 seconds behind Kilde’s time.

Bryce Bennett was the fastest among the U.S. bunch, in seventh, 1.21 off the leading time. Travis Ganong was 16th (+ 1.42) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who crashed below the Hausberg in Kitzbühel last time around, was 25th (+2.02).

The American chances

Kitzbühel has not been a happy hunting ground for U.S. Ski Team downhillers over recent years, but there is cause for optimism, notably Bryce Bennett’s break-out downhill victory and newfound confidence achieved in Val Gardena, one month ago.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA). Photo: GEPA pictures

Travis Ganong (3rd in Beaver Creek super-G) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (4th in Bormio super-G), who has been on the comeback trail following his season-ending crash in last year’s race, both appear poised to nail a top result on the vaunted Austrian piste.

Ganong, who will be making his 12th and 13th career Kitzbühel downhill starts, achieved a career-best seventh, in 2014. Cochran-Siegle, just prior to his injury-sustaining fall last January, displayed speed and potential on the Streif, clocking the fastest time in one of the training runs.

While all ski racers dream about the winning the fabled Hahnenkamm, Bennett insists, that for him, it is significantly more important than even Olympic downhill gold.

Bryce Bennett (USA). Photo: GEPA pictures

“I care about the Olympics, but my priorities are classic World Cup downhill races like Kitzbühel and Wengen,” Bennett said. “I’d rather win Kitzbühel every time over the Olympics.”

Just two Americans have ever won the Hahnenkamm downhills in Kitz: Buddy Werner and Daron Rahlves. Rahlves won on a shortened Streif course in 2003, while the American legend Werner, who trained with the Europeans in a vastly different era, was victorious in 1959.

Bode Miller flirted with a Hahnenkamm victory, winning the combination in 2008, the same year he skied along the fence and was runner-up to Cuche by 0.27 seconds. Three years later, Miller was second once again, also beaten by the Swiss five-time champion.

Italian Rock ‘n’ Roll downhiller leads standings

Italy’s heavy metal loving downhill racer Dominik Paris should never be counted out on the icy, gnarly steeps of Kitzbühel. It is a course that seemingly was designed to suit his style, personality and killer instinct. In fact, no current racer has won the Hahnenkamm more than Paris, who has a triumvirate of victories coming in 2013, 2017 and 2019.

Dominik Paris (ITA). Photo: GEPA pictures

Paris overtook the World Cup downhill standings lead with a third-place showing last Saturday in Wengen. The 31-year-old Italian Carabinieri officer now leads Kilde and four-time World Cup downhill champion Feuz, who are tied for second, by a mere 11 points. The Austrian tandem of Mayer and Kriechmayr are fourth and fifth, in an extremely tight season race, respectively 14 and 31 points behind.

The young Swiss wunderkind Marco Odermatt, who sits comfortably atop the overall World Cup standings, is sixth, trailing Paris by 40 points.

Like a French wine

Just like producing a fine Bordeaux, 41–year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey only seems to get better with age, especially when conditions are ripe in Kitzbühel.

Clarey finished runner-up to Feuz last season, just 0.17 behind. He became the oldest racer to achieve a World Cup podium at 40 years & 16 days old.

Johan Clarey (FRA). Photo: GEPA pictures

Over a World Cup career spanning to November 2003, three of Clarey’s eight career podiums have come on the Streif. He was second to Josef Ferstl, 0.08 shy of a super-G victory in 2019 and third in the 2017 Hahnenkamm downhill, three-tenths behind Paris.

If the popular Frenchman can somehow cultivate a bold and beautiful 2022 varietal, he could become the oldest Kitzbühel downhill winner by four years, eclipsing Didier Cuche, who was 37, when taking top honors in 2012.

Plus vite Johan, plus vite!

Prediction for Friday’s downhill:

  1. Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT)
  2. Matthias Mayer (AUT)
  3. Beat Feuz (SUI)
  4. Dominik Paris (ITA)
  5. Johan Clarey (FRA)

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About the Author: Brian Pinelli

Brian is a veteran skiing and winter sports journalist having covered seven Olympic Winter Games, and numerous Alpine World Ski Championships and World Cup events. After nearly a decade in Park City, Utah, he gave up the world's greatest snow, moving to Europe and attending races at iconic venues including Kitzbuehel, Wengen, Cortina, St. Moritz, Val d'Isere, Kvitfjell and others. He has contributed to the New York Times, Around the Rings, Olympic Review, Powder Magazine, the FIS, CNN World Sport, CBS Sports, NBC Olympics, and other international media. He currently resides in Cortina d'Ampezzo.