Paerson, Wiberg, Mancuso, Recchia and more

Paerson, Wiberg, Mancuso, Recchia and moreAnja Paerson won the super G on Sunday, the first women’s race at the alpine world championships. Second and third went to Lucia Recchia and Julia Mancuso of the United States.

Anja Paerson, 2005 super G world champion
This is unbelievable. I really didn’t expect this. Before the race, the most I had expected was a third place…This year I fought so hard and trained so much, and it’s finally paying off. That I am now the world champion is unbelievable…I can’t say this has been a bad season, even if my results in the technical events have suffered…Of course I wanted to win more slaloms and giant slaloms this season. But I knew my results in the technical events would probably suffer a bit when I added the super G and downhill. You can’t be top in the four disciplines all at once… Even if a lot of people questioned by decision to include the speed events because I have problems in the technical races now I know I made the right decision for me. I would never stop racing the speed races now…It’s mentally really fun to ski every day. It’s a big challenge. It’s interesting to see how much I can push, how hard I can push my body….In a world championship everyone pushed things to another level. Everybody is taking more risk. As favorite, you always try to charge more than anyone else. You know there is pressure on you and you want it so badly…I did plan a few years back to race in all disciplines. My coaches and I sat down to discuss what I wanted to do with my career. We wanted to see if we could do something with Turin. And we’ve stuck to that plan…I feel this is so right for me and I will continue this all my career. I will never stop skiing the speed events even if it is hurting my slalom and GS.

Pernilla Wiberg, Swedish Olympic champion, television commentator, International Olympic Committee member
‘I was impressed by her skiing. It’s really great…When I won my first world championship in ’91, she was 11 years old and she watched me. She said, ‘I also want to be like that.’… It’s quite interesting to follow her. She is very, very focused. When she decides to do something, she does it….Athletes in Sweden have a really high status. She’s well famous. I think ask one person on the street in Stockholm they will recognize her. I think everyone in Sweden knows who Anja Paerson is.

Julia Mancuso, bronze medalist, women’s super G
Ever since I was young I knew how to ski in the course and out of the course. It’s just a matter of finding all the right equipment and all the right tactics…I just know that I can ski well, and don’t have any pressure. I know every race that I can be up there. It’s just a matter of not getting nervous in the start…It’s motivating to ski [with Lindsey Kildow]. We watch each other and ski together and she doesn’t do anything special. We’ve always been at the same level. We were born the same year. I went to ski camps with her. Erich Sailer’s camp. I remember she was this great young skier from Buck Hill, and Erich was her coach. We’d go out and go into groups, and they picked us, and she was an automatic group one, and I was like, ‘okay, whatever.’ … I never really think that [the Austrians] look good when they ski. On the American team, all of us girls not excluding anyone — would win if it was a beauty contest on the hill, as far as the turns go. We all have clean turns. It’s a surprise when girls come down, and don’t look good…We train with the Austrians and we beat them by seconds. We train quite a bit when we’re in Soelden in October…I think our team is getting better. I don’t think it will be like in the past, where there’s one face for the team. I think eventually all of our team will be in contention for any medal anywhere.

Lucchia Recchia, silver medalist
It’s four or five years that my fan club follows me. They are really great. From my home town, Brunico, a very little village of 1,000 people. A lot of them were here today. It really means a lot to me to win a medal, but to do it at home is the best.

Giuseppe Recchia, father of Lucchia Recchia
I feel great. Couldn’t be better. It was a very good run, as far as I could judge. I am not an insider in skiing, but it looked very good. I didn’t expect it. I knew that Lussy was good, but I didn’t expect a silver medal. I am from the north of Italy, near Brunico, which is near the Dolomites, in Sudtirol. The brother of Lucchia is a Harvard fellow. He is making a PhD there. Stefano Recchia. He is studying international relations. She started when she was about four. I was her instructor then. She has always been very fond of skiing, and sport in general. She started competing when she was 10 and 11.