World Cup defeat against Austria
Schmid’s slip robs Germany of all hope
2/14/2023 3:14 p.m
The German ski squad missed the hoped-for World Cup medal in the team competition. The team around the slalom specialists Lena Dürr and Linus Straßer lost in the quarterfinals against Olympic champions Austria. The title went to the USA, who competed without superstar Mikaela Shiffrin.
The German team just missed out on the hoped-for medal in the team competition at the World Ski Championships in Courchevel and Meribel. Lena Dürr, Andrea Filser, Alexander Schmid and Linus Straßer lost 3-1 on runs against Austria in the quarter-finals. At the start there was a success against Sweden (3:1). The title went to the USA, who competed without superstar Mikaela Shiffrin. The United States prevailed in the fight for gold against defending champions Norway. The Canadians secured bronze against Austria.
Filser against Julia Scheib, Straßer against Dominik Raschner and Schmid against Stefan Brennsteiner were each at a disadvantage in the direct quarter-final duels of the parallel format. The only success drove Dürr against Franziska Gritsch. The last driver, Schmid, had the chance to equalize after runs and get the semi-final ticket with a fast time. However, the 28-year-old slipped and was eliminated. “Something like that just can’t happen, I take it on my cap a bit,” said Schmid on the ZDF microphone.
Alpine boss Wolfgang Maier took it sporty. “If you want to compete for a medal in this team competition, you have to go to the limit. That can happen,” said Maier about Schmid’s slip and spoke of an overall “decent performance” by the German team: “We were eliminated against the Olympic champions, that you can accept that, we have to accept that in sport.” The competition is so fast-paced, every round a small final,” Strasser judged ZDF. “Basically, I think that we did a good job as a team – in that case the Austrians were a bit faster.” Schmid would be 15 hundredths ahead reached the finish, this would have been enough for the semi-finals with a score of 2:2.
The German Ski Association (DSV) had aimed for the first medal during the title fights in France in the team competition. Last year, Germany won the silver medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. A year earlier, the DSV team had won bronze at the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo. In another mode, Germany even became the first world champion in Bormio in 2005. In the team competition there are four duels per round: twice woman against woman and twice man against man. If it is 2:2, the better overall time of the fastest woman and the fastest man decides.