Maier on “Herminator’s” footsteps

Austria’s Superstar Hermann Maier is on his best way to imitate the almost invincible “Herminator” who dominated the “White Circus” from 1998 to 2001. On his beloved “Birds of Prey” course, the triple Overall World Cup Champion crushed once more his rivals, beating by almost a full second his closest concurrent, his teammate Hans Knauss.

Very fast from top to bottom, Maier celebrated his eighth triumph on this demanding run including his two wins at the 1999 Worlds and a giant slalom in November 1999. Last week, he already won a Super-G in Lake Louise, Canada.

Andreas Schifferer, 2nd in GS at Park City, came in 3rd ahead of Friday’s winner, Daron Rahlves who didn’t find back his momentum from the previous day. Four more Austrian finished among the top-10 but not Stephan Eberharter, the winner from last year. The defending Overall World Cup champion, 2nd on Friday, is now a distant 12th .

Beside Rahlves, the only “foreigners” among the best ten are Marco Buechel, from Liechtenstein 7th and Sweden’s Patrik Jarbyn 10th – another great result for the 34-year-old Scandinavian who trained by himself last summer after losing his spot on the national team.

America’s Bode Miller, who crashed in the first downhill after clocking the best intermediate time, tried again to force the decision. Yet this time he skied out in the upper part of the course after having already lost more than half a second on Maier who takes the lead in the Overall World Cup standings for the first time since March 2001, when he clinched his third title in Are, Sweden. He is followed by Michael Walchhofer, 6th in that race.

“I think that Hermann Maier can achieved some good results, but the days of “The Herminator” are gone – I don’t think I can ever win with the same kinds of margins as before” the double Olympic Champion said last week in Lake Louise two days before hammering his rivals in the Super-G.
But the skier from Flachau, who will turn 31 on Sunday, was wrong – even in his best years, Maier won with such a margin here – 95/100 on Knauss.

“I guess I was very motivated” he said with a smile after the prize givings. “I wanted to achieve a better performance than yesterday when I only finished 5th after losing much time in the upper part of the course. I was not very pleased because I was close to the podium”.
“My skis run much faster there today and I was very relaxed and focused. To win here is very special to me, because I consider this as my home-turf. I always enjoy racing here since 1997 because you have to fight hard”.

After this new victory, the managers from Vail/Beaver Creek may finally decide to change the name of the hill as they said in the past and call it “Hermann’s Berg” . In the history of the sport, no other champion has dominate an event as Hermann did since November 1997!

On Sunday, the skier from Flachau will be hard to beat on his birthday – it would be his 45th World Cup win!

ML