WC Rewind: Snow Queen rules, King Aamodt exits

Marlies Schild is the Snow Queen.
    And Marc Berthod is the hero of Switzerland.
    The Croatians are nationalistic in support of their skiing athletes, and Benni Raich has not gone away.
    The first week of January 2007 brought enough excitement for a full season and saw the greatest ever leave when all-time medal winner Kjetil Andre Aamodt announced that his impending retirement was now official. It was a busy kickoff for the James Bond (007) year.
MARLIES SCHILD IS THE SNOW QUEEN.
    And Marc Berthod is the hero of Switzerland.
    The Croatians are nationalistic in support of their skiing athletes, and Benni Raich has not gone away.
    The first week of January 2007 brought enough excitement for a full season and saw the greatest ever leave when all-time medal winner Kjetil Andre Aamodt announced that his impending retirement was now official. It was a busy kickoff for the James Bond (007) year.
    Schild won the 2007 Snow Queen Trophy with a dominating slalom performance on the longest slalom course on the women’s World Cup schedule — Zagreb — posting a 1.66-second margin over home favorite Ana Jelusic of Croatia, while 20,000 locals booed Schild’s every turn. Schild, who then also won the Kranjska Gora slalom, cannot explain her success. “It was like a dream today, my skis were just flying over the snow,” she said after Kranjska Gora.
    She has now won 11 career World Cup slaloms, matching Raich for best ever for an Austrian. Having won five of six (with a lead in the other) this season and three more on the schedule, only a fool would bet against her taking control of that record.
    Raich, the defending World Cup overall, GS and combined champion and a double gold medalist at Torino, exorcised the demons that had kept him winless since November at familiar Adelboden when he forged a workmanlike GS win with two strong runs. But it was the Adelboden slalom which had veteran viewers agog.
    The Swiss came into the race with plenty of close seconds, but no wins for the season. Slalom was not considered the most likely discipline in which to break into the win column. No Swiss male had won a slalom since Didier Plaschy got two in 1999, and before that seekers go back to Paul Accola in 1991. Plus, there simply were no strong candidates entered. Or so it seemed.
    Starting 60th, Berthod, a 23-year-old from St. Moritz, forged a brilliant run over a rapidly deteriorating course to finish 27th and earn a second run. It was in that run his true brilliance shone. With much better course conditions in the reverse-30 format, he said it felt like his skis “were dancing on the snow,” and he was nearly two seconds faster than any of the three who had already tested the second course. He got his improbable win and gave Switzerland its first win of the season on home snow. Life doesn’t get much better. “I could really let myself go and liberate myself. It was really great. It is such an incredible gift for me. … for Switzerland … for the home crowd,” he told AP’s Erica Bulman after the race. Raich gave chase but couldn’t quite get there, settling for second.
    The week will not stand as one of the best in the American books. “To crap out like this … was unfortunate,” said head men’s coach Phil McNichol. “We needed to get something done and we just didn’t do it.” But it was not entirely a lost weekend, either. Julia Mancuso and newcomer Kaylin Richardson posted nearly identical two-race results (8th and 17th for Julia, 8th and 18th for Kaylin), and Resi Stiegler snared fifth in the Zagreb slalom. But the lone men’s result for the week was 17th from Ted Ligety in GS. Not up to December’s standards.
    There were other stories, Aamodt’s retirement chief among them. Ana Jelusic in second on her home hill in Zagreb is big, but following up with fifth at Kranjska Gora may be bigger. She has become a major player this season. Same could be said for Czech Sarka Zahrobska, who was third at Zagreb and second at Kranjska Gora with a seventh in GS in between. Her podiums are the first for the Czech Republic since realignment. Very quietly she has moved to 10th on the overall standings list.
    It is also significant that Aksel Lund Svindal got through the weekend without losing control of first on the men’s tour. “I’ve never been fast at Adelboden, so I did think I’d be able to keep the leader’s jersey,” he said. “But I still have it.”