Next top result for Sander
Weidle flies off and struggles with “stupid mistakes”
03/16/2023, 1:48 p.m
At the Alpine World Cup final, Kira Weidle’s season ends with a fall. Germany’s best speed driver is then annoyed about the recurring “stupid” mistakes. Andreas Sander drives strong again. Above all, however, is Marco Odermatt from Switzerland.
Kira Weidle stood at the edge of the piste with her head bowed and discussed her mishap with Wolfgang Maier, the head of the alpine range. Helpers had freed them from the safety net in which their mixed season had just ended. Two podiums, five more places in the top ten, nothing at the World Cup – and a fall at the end of the World Cup final in Andorra. “Very annoying,” said Weidle, “again.”
Weidle was annoyed with herself because she had made a serious mistake again this winter. “Why such stupid mistakes always happen in the race is something you have to think about,” she said, but defiantly assured that she would come back “with new strength” in the new season: “But now it’s time in the to work even harder on the weaknesses in the summer.” There is much to do.
“Maybe I can take the flow with me”
For Andreas Sander, on the other hand, the season could go on a little longer. After third place the day before behind Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr and his teammate Romed Baumann, the Westphalian missed another coup, but again showed a strong performance and finished sixth, just 0.25 seconds behind the podium. “I’ll definitely take that with me,” said Sander, “maybe I can take the flow with me into next year.”
With his “mega” end of the season, the 33-year-old was definitely “happy – that makes you want more”. In fact, Sander ended the World Cup winter as a surprising and excellent fourth in the Super-G classification – ahead of him were only the big three: high-flyer Marco Odermatt from Switzerland, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde from Norway and Vincent Kriechmayr from Austria. “I’m extremely proud of that,” he said.
Odermatt in its own league
Marco Odermatt is also in a league of his own in the finale. The 25-year-old won the last Super-G of the season, his twelfth win overall and sixth in the second-fastest alpine discipline – the latter a record. In the overall World Cup, the defending champion now has 1,942 points: In the concluding giant slalom at the weekend, he can surpass the record of 2,000 points set by Austrian Hermann Maier from the 1999/2000 season.
Even with a third place, Olympic champion and double world champion Odermatt would have 2002 points, with another win of the season he would draw level with the record holders Maier and Ingemar Stenmark from Sweden: Both had 13 first places in one winter. Before the final, Odermatt had already won the overall, super-G and giant slalom World Cups. Only the overall victory in the slalom is open for the men.
The Swiss had two reasons to be happy after the last Super-G race: Olympic champion Lara Gut-Behrami secured the last crystal globe for women in a thrilling race with her third win of the season. It is her fourth in this discipline, only Katja Seizinger and Lindsey Vonn (USA) have won the Super-G World Cup more times (five times each).