Monday March 22, 2021
Shitstorm for Lara Gut-Behrami
Ski star explains himself after scandal
Lara Gut-Behrami starts in the giant slalom in Lenzerheide. Or something like that. Because after the second goal it swings out and is eliminated. A driving mistake? No. Intention! There’s a lot of anger for the action on social media. The Swiss woman is silent at first and only explains herself late. That raises questions.
No, Felix Neureuther had no sympathy for Lara Gut-Behrami’s action. “That’s unprofessional. That’s not how you say goodbye to the season, it’s not nice to the other athletes either.” Already after the second goal, the Swiss had canceled the giant slalom at the World Cup final in Lenzerheide. Not after a mistake on your skis, but apparently with pure intent.
This immediately caused a lot of outrage on social media. The comments ranged from “unsportsmanlike”, to “unsympathetic” to “bad loser”, which can still be quoted here. As is so often the case with Twitter, there are also a few drawers that are shabby. Neureuther initially speculated: “Either it was a refusal to work, a protest or she just didn’t feel like it anymore.”
Lara Gut-Behrami actually left plenty of room for speculation, because she did not talk about her action at first. Walter Reusser, Alpine Director of the team, explained that the 29-year-old simply felt “tired and drained”. An explanation that raised the question of many Twitter users: Why did it even start? The Swiss newspaper “Blick” quoted Reusser as saying that he was also amazed. “Lara warmed up seriously, but then noticed that the focus was no longer there. She had an uncomfortable feeling in the start house, which was then confirmed on the slopes.”
In the meantime, Reusser justified the fact that Gut-Behrami did not want to explain himself at first: “It is not easy to find the right words in such situations. That was an inner battle that she fought and lost. She was disappointed about that . ” Later she did speak and explained herself in more detail: “I tried it, but it didn’t work. This slope is difficult. You need tension, trust and energy. The last time I tried the crowbar I tore my cruciate ligament. ” That was in February 2017, when entering the combi slalom of the World Cup.
But part of the truth is probably also: Even before the giant slalom, she had no chance of winning the overall World Cup. Bitter for her: Because the two speed events Super G and Downhill were canceled in Lenzerheide, in which she would have had clear advantages over her competitor Petra Vlhova, she ultimately had no chance of success. Small consolation for Gut-Behrami: At the World Championships she won gold in the Super-G and in the giant slalom and took bronze in the downhill. She also grabbed the small crystal ball in the Super-G discipline.
It is not the first time that Gut-Behrami has caused outrage. Again and again she had made people sit up and take notice with critical words. Most recently at the beginning of February, when she did not want to apologize for her statement about a “disgusting” slope in Crans-Montana. Instead, it was recorded unintentionally, with the words: “I should apologize personally and tell the president that the slope is good. Kiss my ass.”
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