Beaver Creek/Lake Lewis (DPA) – At Beaver Creek’s starting home, Dominic Schweiger had more than just target slope in his sights – and regretfully acknowledged his good eleventh place in the Downhill World Cup.
“Unfortunately, less than eight,” said the 30-year-old from Königssee. He missed out on the desired eighth place by 0.15 seconds, thus earning direct qualification for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
As eleventh on the “Birds of Prey” slope in the US state of Colorado, he still manages half standard on Saturdays. To qualify for the Winter Games, German athletes must finish in the top eight once or twice in the top 15 in a World Cup season.
go one step further
Kira Weidle is already a step ahead. 1, the Sternberg native moved up to seventh at the World Cup in Lake Louise, Canada, and qualified for Beijing in the second downhill race of the season after being disappointed with his 10th place the day before. It was a “solid start to the season” with some good points in the bag, she wrote on Instagram.
The World Cup runner-up in the Super-G had initially hoped for an even better place, but eventually put it at stake a bit. “We were hoping for a little more snow, that in the beginning it would be even better. But one thing for sure is always the lottery,” said the 25-year-old.
The only speed specialist on the German Ski Association (DSV) team with a level of top placement could not hold a candle to the outstanding Sofia Gogia like all her competitors. Like Friday, the Italian won the second race with ease.
The 29-year-old, who was the best downhill skier at the World Cup last season, won by 0.84 seconds ahead of American Breezy Johnson the day before. Third place went to Corinne Sutter (+0.98 sec) from Switzerland. Weidle was 1.44 seconds slower. The second German starter, Nadine Kaffer, finished 46th, 4.84 seconds earlier.
Norwegian Alexander Aamodt Kilde also celebrated a double victory at Beaver Creek. A day after the breakthrough in the Super-G, the 2020 overall World Cup winner overtook Austrian Mathias Meyer by a margin of 0.66 seconds to finish second. The third went 1.01 seconds earlier to Beat Fuse, Switzerland.
Andreas Sander has just made it to the top 20. World Championship runner-up from Anipetal was 1.88 seconds slower than winner Kilde. This means “again a full attack and a slightly more straight line attack”, he concluded. World Championships runners-up Romade Baumann finished 23rd and Josef Ferstal 26th.
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