Fourth season win for Stephan Eberharter

Kvitfjell, Norway, March 6th, 2003. Austria’s downhill master Stephan Eberharter captured his third consecutive downhill World Cup title in Kvitfjell thanks to an almost perfect run in the final part of the “Olympic” course.
The defending overall World Cup champion beat by 4/100 of a second his team-mate Fritz Strobl, the reigning Olympic champion, while France’s Antoine Dénériaz, the winner here last year, was a strong 3rd at 36/100. Strobl was clearly leading in the upper part of the course before fading in the last sections.

It’s Eberharter’s 29th World Cup victory since March 1998 and his 4th this season in downhill.

With only a single downhill left on the World Cup program this winter, the Tyrolian veteran who turns 35 in two weeks is assured to clinch his 7th Crystal trophy in Sestriere. He built up a lead of 234 points on his nearest rival, his team-mate Hermann Maier, only 9th today.
Daron Rahlves, 4th in the race, is 3rd in the standings ten points behind a disappointed Maier.

The skier from Flachau, who raced for the first time on the Norwegian course since his last victory in March 2001, expected more from this race after his impressive victory last month his St Anton. He made some mistakes during his very aggressive run, losing 86/100 at the end on Eberharter but he also said that he may have not chosen the fastest pair of ski before the race. “The course conditions were different today, it was warmer and the snow was not as icy as in the previous days,” he said. “”I should have taken another pair of ski for these conditions.”

Yet Maier regained the command of the overall World Cup standings, with an advance of 16 points on America’s Bode Miller, a far 26th in that technically demanding competition attended by a great crowd despite the absence of Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Aamodt and the start.

Benjamin Raich, a slalom specialist as Miller, was an excellent 17th – which allowed him to gain some ground on the leaders. Only 82 points separate now the top-four athletes – Maier, Miller, Eberharter and Raich.

18 downhill wins for Stephan

Eberharter, a winner here three years ago, clearly dominated the downhill scene this year. After his victory in Chamonix early January, he always reached the podium in this specialty, celebrating more superb wins in Kizbühel and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
His consistency since his first downhill victory in Lake Louise in November 2000 is amazing. He won almost half of the following thirty-nine downhill races he entered – and was 2nd or 3rd in eleven of them. Not bad at all for a former giant slalom specialist who is also the reigning GS Olympic Champion! He set another remarkable record in winning all the downhills regularly selected for the World Cup calendars.

Only one other specialist, the 1976 Olympic champion Franz Klammer, who dominated 25 downhill races in his golden years, did better in the past. “Kaiser Franz” won 21 of the next 39 races he entered after his first win in Schladming, in December 1973, finishing six times in 2nd or 3rd place!

Stephan Eberharter was of course delighted by his most recent success and his third downhill World Cup globe. “It was my main goal at the season start and I’m very happy and proud to have achieved it after my difficult season start,” he said after the race, remembering the bad flue which prevented him to enjoy his best form in November and December.
“I like this course, it’s a very fair and challenging one,” he added. “It includes everything which make a race spectacular and exciting, big jumps, high-speed turns, a few gliding sections, lots of difficult turns.”
“I felt confident after the training and I didn’t make any major error. My forced break from last week helped me to recover some energy. I felt fit and very motivated coming here.”

He is also happy to have regained much ground on the favourites in the overall standings, but he doesn’t want to put himself under pressure. “It would be fun to fight until the end, but it doesn’t matter so much for me now, I have already conquered the big globe twice. I’ll for sure try my best because I feel in good shape and I have nothing to lose.”

Eberharter has still not decided to go one for one or two more seasons. As last year, he wants to enjoy the coming spring before thinking more seriously about his future. “I have achieved a sensational career so far with wonderful results during the last three seasons, so I can leave the tour whenever I want – or decide to continue if I feel more fire inside me!”

Bode Miller keeps fighting.

In Sunday’s Super-G competition, Bode Miller will try to improve his level and remain close to Hermann Maier before travelling to Sestriere, in Piedmont, where the World Cup will end with four more races next week.
The double World Champion from St Moritz was disappointed to have missed a good chance to score more points in that next-to-last downhill of the 2004 season. “I was faster than expected in the upper part of the course, my skis were flying and it surprised me at the first jump,” he explained.

“I jumped longer than planned there and I came out very wide,” Miller added. “I didn’t lose too much at the bottom. This mistake certainly cost me a spot among the top-20. I’m only half a second behind the 15th! The battle will be hard but I continue to remain confident because my skis are obviously very fast and there are still five races left. I could have lost more points on Maier today.”

The skier to beat in that competition is again Hermann Maier, who crushed once more all his rivals last month in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to win his fifth Super-G World Cup title. Since his return on the circuit in January 2003, Maier finished all his Super-G races on the podium, winning three of them (Kitzbühel, Lake Louise, Garmisch-Partenkirchen).

Eberharter was 3rd in Lake Louise, Canada, and 2nd in Val Gardena, Italy, but twice 9th in Kitzbühel and Garmisch. Yet he feels very comfortable too in Kvitfjell where he won his last Super-G a year ago during the 2003 Finals!

Raich was 11th in that same race and Miller a far 20th. Twice 6th in that specialty last winter (and 2nd at the Ski Worlds in St Moritz), Bode could not enter the top-15 this season. He was twice 17th in Val Gardena and Garmisch. He needs at least a top-5 on Sunday to keep a real chance to remain in the race for the Crystal globe until the last slalom in Sestriere!

M.P.