Kira Weidle fails in the descent and surprises in the Super-G

Created: 12/19/2021, 4:02 pm

By: Michael Baumgärtner

Totally angry and frustrated, Kira Weidle crossed the finish line on Saturday after a failed downhill run.

She drummed her fists on her helmet in anger.

© dpa

A turbulent roller coaster weekend lies behind Kira Weidle.

The Starnberg ski racer landed in Val d'Isere on Saturday after almost falling in the World Cup downhill run only in 39th place and then finished 16th in the Super-G on Sunday

Starnberg

- Kira Weidle was stunned. “There is no such thing,” said the World Cup runner-up, referring to less 39th place and her huge deficit on serial winner Sofia Goggia in the World Cup descent from Val d'Isere. What made the racer from the Starnberg Ski Club so angry on Saturday: That the same mistake had happened to her again in that darn right turn. Weidle prevented a bad fall with difficulty and sent a wild scream into the high Savoy Alps. Even during her messed up ride, she angrily hit the slope with her ski pole, at the finish she drummed her fists on her helmet.

No wonder: she fell in the same place in training on Thursday and injured her thumb slightly.

And: In the previous year, too, she deviated from the traditional “OK” slope in both training sessions, and back then, too, her thumb hurt.

Was the cold to blame?

“It was more of a tactical problem,” Weidle reported with a cough in the ARD, “I wasn't quite self-confident about the outside ski, I couldn't quite manage the direction and I flew very far into this hole again.” So she was able to control the body tension "Don't quite hold it, that happens".

Weidle were 4.32 seconds apart from Olympic champion Goggia (Italy), who won her seventh consecutive downhill run.

Only the Americans Tricia Mangan and Greta Small (Australia) were slower.

Weidle felt “ready” despite having a cold - but “maybe only with 95 percent of his strength”.

That wasn't enough.

The result on Sunday in the Super-G was all the more gratifying.

Kira Weidle entered the race without any great expectations and then finished 16th. This is her second-best result of her World Cup career in this discipline so far.

It was only better once - in January of this year in St. Anton it was 15th.

The victory on Sunday went to the currently unbeatable Italian Sofia Goggia, who is currently leading in the overall World Cup, with Weidle 1.50 seconds behind.

Weakened by a stubborn cold and a near fall on the descent, the 25-year-old had declared the race to be a “test drive” before the start.

“Maybe sometimes it doesn't hurt to take a little bit out, clear your head and say, I just want to ski well.

I managed to do that quite well in some places, "she said after her surprising 16th place:" Under the circumstances, I'm quite satisfied. "

For Weidle there is now a longer Christmas break.

The next speed races will not take place again until the weekend, 15./16.

January, in Zauchensee (Austria).

A week later, she goes to Cortina d'Ampezzo, where the Starnberg-born woman celebrated her greatest triumph to date last February - winning the World Cup silver medal in the downhill.

dpa / mib