Michael Matt goes against the current: "Paralleli ok, punter even on combined and giant"

The Austrian slalom player prepares the objectives for the next season: he will not go to New Zealand and thinks of a project linked to polyvalence

Saturday 15 June 2019 3 minutes reading time

Twenty-six years recently completed and the feeling of still having to find its own dimension at the highest levels, as its quality is not in question. Michael Matt experienced a last season a bit 'special, with only one podium in his specialty, or the 3rd place in the Madonna di Campiglio slalom (taken for the hair in comeback and with the sensational releases of Kristoffersen and Hirscher ), but the world redemption with a double medal in the World Championships show of Are, or the silver won both in the team event and among the rapid gates, on the day of the Austrian hat-trick with Hirscher and Schwarz. The '93 class of Zams is therefore planning to broaden its horizons and, in an interview granted to the "Tiroler Tageszeitung", confirmed to want to participate also to all the giants and the combined, besides the parallels where it is found particularly well. "I will have to train also in super-g and descent for the combined, but I want to try - explained the brother of art - Thinking also about the World Cup 2021 and the Olympics 2022, the medals at stake could be a goal, not only in slalom ". Matt admitted that last season was below expectations, even for a calendar that included long stops and races behind one another for the slalomists. Speaking of programming by the FIS, the Austrian spared no criticism, pointing out that "the federation does not care what the athletes think", but would like it to focus even more on parallels. "If you have to go to the city to involve more people around skiing, then these events are the way to go." The summer program does not provide, unlike the previous years, the trip to New Zealand with teammates, but a job on home glaciers considering also the conditions that could be ideal even in the months of August and September.

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