Alpine Skiingfemale world cup
2018 Getty Images
At 30 he became the reference of the descent, in Austria and beyond. A fearsome rival for Goggia and more ...
Tuesday 10 September 2019 6 minutes reading time
Nicole Schmidhofer surprised everyone, that day in Sankt Moritz where she won the world super-g title, without ever having won a World Cup race.
It was February 7, 2017 and, only almost two years later, the potential of Friesach's small lightning was really understood; the 2018/19 season, in fact, has consecrated "Nici" to the world top, with the conquest of the Downhill World Cup and a continuity in fast races confirming a psycho-physical maturity now fully reached.
Not bad if the world championships of Are were not positive for her and her team mates, who then accompanied her to the final podium of Soldeu, as Stephanie Venier and Ramona Siebenhofer were able to form a historical trio for the Austria of speed, in the queen specialty.
It is also true that the injuries of Sofia Goggia and Ilka Stuhec, as well as of course the ailments and withdrawal of Lindsey Vonn, have partially favored the domination of the aquilotte, and it is also for this reason that the 2019 World Cup vintage 2020 promises to be exciting, due to the various speed duels that will involve not only the Olympic gold medalist and the bi-champion of the world of descent, but also athletes in exponential growth like Corinne Suter and Kira Weidle, not to mention the same teammates of Schmidhofer, of veterans such as Weirather and Gut-Behrami, of a rising star such as Nicol Delago and of multi-purpose by now established as Shiffrin and Rebensburg.
Interviewed by the FIS press office, the friendly Carinthian racist admitted that "emotionally, St. Moritz's gold cannot be overcome by any other victory, but technically the crystal ball is certainly worth more ". In fact, Schmidhofer has been continuous throughout the season, starting with the clamorous one-two in Lake Louise, his first successes in the Cup, which has addressed the year in the best way.
"It's true, I grew so much after the Olympic season - Nicole's analysis to explain the Austrian triumphs of last year - Two new coaches like Florian Scheiber (who ran in the Wunderteam until 2016, ed) and Wolfi Grabner, who have introduced new inputs and solutions for the team. My technician Berni Arnitz and I have been able to take a step forward together with Fischer and, moreover, on a physical level I have increased my work achieving an ideal result ".
After finishing the season in Soldeu, from the following week Schmidhofer also dedicated himself to speed skiing, immediately discovering himself as competitive and able to even touch the medal at the Vars World Championships, which ended in 4th place with a resounding Austrian record of 217.590 km / h. A new career on the horizon? Stain ...
"It was an occasion, but competing in the world competition was almost a coincidence. My goal was to exceed 200 km / h to try something different, then when I qualified among the best 5 for the finals, of course I tried to win a medal. I got a lot more than I hoped, but I'm not going to practice this discipline soon, as well as no other extreme sport. That time everything worked well, but the danger of an injury is very high and I don't want to risk anything in the coming years.
I think of the descent, the super-g and the poles, I still want to win â€. Clear ideas, no?
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Social media engagement
Ultimi in Sport invernali
A 60 giorni dal ritorno della Coppa del Mondo, a Levi è cominciata la costruzione della pista con la neve stoccata mesi fa
Il 14-15 novembre il primo week-end di slalom, con la gara femminile ad anticipare quella maschile sulla Levi Black, dove da quest'oggi si è partiti utilizzando la neve isolata con la tecnica dello snowfarming. Nel 2025 la nona perla di Shiffrin da quelle parti, per cominciare la sua perfect season tra i rapid gates, e quella storica di Pinheiro Braathen per il Brasile.
148