Alpine combination: Jocher's race to catch up ends in disappointment
Created: 02/10/2022, 08:07
By: Paul Hopp
Ski racer Simon Jocher during the combined downhill run at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
© DIMITAR DILKOFF
He was the only DSV starter, but he was denied a surprise: Unfortunately, the alpine combination in Beijing ended in disappointment for Simon Jocher.
Yangqin - At the Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina, Simon Jocher caused a huge surprise in the combination last year.
The World Cup debutant from Schongau ended up taking a sensational fifth place.
Unfortunately, Jocher could not repeat such a feat at the Olympics in Beijing.
Jocher already lost any chances of an absolute top result in the downhill.
In the final slalom, the man from Schongau wanted to make up positions and drove accordingly aggressively.
Shortly after the second split, however, he retired after a driving error.
Jocher was the only DSV starter in this discipline.
Simon Jocher retires in the slalom
Austria's Johannes Strolz won the gold medal (2:31.43).
His father Hubert had won gold in Calgary in 1988 in the alpine combined.
Somewhat surprisingly, Norway's Alexander Aamodt Kilde took silver, 0.59 seconds back, while Canadian James Crawford (0.68 seconds back) took bronze.
Even the descent didn't go according to Jocher's wishes at all.
With a time of 1:45.80 minutes, he only finished 16th out of 27 drivers.
The gap to the top time, set by Alexander Aamodt Kilde, was a whopping 2.68 seconds.
Surprising: Ahead of Jocher were, among others, the Monegasque Alessandria Arnaud and the Israeli Barnabas Szollos.
The latter also shone in the slalom with the second-best driving time (48.14).
The fastest slalom driver was the Austrian Strolz (47.56).
"I wanted to have a head start," said Jocher after the descent.
"Unfortunately, I didn't succeed at all." In the run-up, he had already stated that he couldn't cope with the special snow conditions in the National Alpine Ski Center Xiaohaituo and had difficulties adjusting to it, it said on ZDF.
A total of seven drivers were eliminated in the slalom, including co-favorite Alexis Pinturault (France) and the Swiss Loic Meillard and Luca Aerni (2017 combined world champions).