Atle Lie McGrath, the future is already here. The record numbers of 2000 that dominated the European Cup

The Norwegian talent has literally exploded this season, where he also touched the first great result in the World Cup. "I have a good base for the 2020/21 vintage."

Friday 27 March 2020 6 minutes reading time

Like Hirscher, Pinturault, Raich and many other champions, including compatriots Jansrud and Kilde, the latter who grew up like him in the ski club of Baerum, near Oslo, to win in 2013 the European Cup and seven years later the Cup of the world. It could even take less than 7 years, who knows, for a talent like Atle Lie McGrath to take home the most important crystal ball, after having dominated the ranking of the continental circuit this season. The phenomenal Norwegian class 2000 has written a page of history, breaking the competition from slalom to speed, and inflicting the record break ever in the European Cup at the second in the ranking (the Austrian Raphael Haaser), that is 433 points. Indeed, Benni Raich triumphed in 1998 with 410 margin lengths. In some ways similar to the "twin" Lucas Braathen, the other Norwegian champion born in the new millennium and already capable of showing himself at the highest level in the World Cup (above all, the 4th place in the Kitzbuehel slalom after having signed the best time in the first heat), McGrath seems ready to emerge even in the maximum circuit. Twenty years to go on April 21, the boy born in Vermont from parents of former skiers, Felix McGrath and the Norwegian (hence the transfer to Scandinavia) Selma Lie, played a simply amazing year: ten podiums in the Cup Europe, with two victories coming after a series of second places that looked like a curse, given that only in the combined Sella Nevea (with the blue talent Franzoni second) McGrath got that first success that seemed obvious for some time, to then add the triumph in the giant of Jasna which also earned the arithmetic of the specialty cup conquered between the wide doors. Numbers that would have been even more sensational if the European Cup season had not ended well in advance between cancellations and Coronavirus, but even in the World Cup we have already seen some flashes of the purest class: beyond the two points races, with 24th place in the parallel giant in Alta Badia and 22nd in the Kitz slalom, it is on the Chuenisbargli of Adelboden that McGrath frightened in the slalom. Qualifying with bib number 75, the Norwegian was flying in a second heat which, in his time before going out to the attack on the final wall, saw him projected very close to the podium area. And at the junior world championships, only the Coronavirus alarm stopped its race, with the combined (where it was overpriced after the 2019 silver in Val di Fassa) stopped in half and the technical tests not disputed. "Atle is a true all-rounder, he worked hard to make it so in the European Cup - the words of the sports director of the Norwegian Federsci, Claus Johan Ryste - It will be important for him to continue like this to take the next step in the World Cup and we will do our best for him, who is young and knows how to have fun on skis ". And the interested party confesses that "Kitzbuehel was the most incredible context, a unique experience with all those people over there ...", but thoughts are already on the year of the definitive entry into the World Cup team. “Now I think I have a good starting point for next season. I am looking forward to continuing my work and investing in a year that will also include the world championships. I don't know what to expect, but I will certainly try. "

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