Maier and Strobl qualified for Bormio's World Downhill

In a packed press conference held this evening in the Hotel of the Austrian racers, the head coach of the men's ski team Toni Giger informed the media that the trainers have decided to name Hermann Maier and Fritz Strobl for the team which will compete in Saturday's competition aside of the defending World Champion Michael Walchhofer and the two-time World Cup winner Johann Grugger.

The two remaining athletes, Christoph Gruber, 2nd in Wengen and Werner Franz, the winner in Val d'Isère, will have to fight for the last spot during Friday's last training run.

Tuesday's and Wednesday's training runs were originally planned as qualification runs for the four skiers battling for the three places, but difficult weather conditions prevented them from having a fair competition.
So Giger and his staff decided to pick two skiers today and one more on Friday.

It's not really a surprise that both Maier and Strobl were picked by the staff. Maier, a two-time winner in downhill on the “Stelvio” course, and the reigning Olympic Champion Fritz Strobl have shown their potential on this challenging course. They also proved in the past that they are able to reach their potential on given days.

Maier, who has not won a downhill since his last success in St Anton a year ago, struggled this winter in that speciality. His best finish was a 4th place in Wengen. Strobl was on the podium here in December. He hasn't won a race since his Olympic triumph but he is ready for it here.

It's not so fair for Werner Franz who was hoping for a spot after his win in Val d'Isère, and Christoph Gruber who skied well in Wengen and in training in Kitzbühel.

But at the end of the day, what is really fair in sport?