“This forum is absurd” | Sports at home/abroad

The last season was the most successful season of Michel Gisin’s career. The first World Cup victory was achieved brilliantly at the end of last year in slalom in Semaring. In mid-January, the first top 3 places in giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, and in mid-February in combination in World Cup bronze. In addition, Obwaldnerin worked consistently at the highest level in technical disciplines.

As a result, Gisin was able to dream of winning the big crystal ball at an advanced point in the season. That shouldn’t be enough for the 2018 United Olympic Champions due to persistent problems in the speed zone. But in the end the overall World Cup victorious Slovak came in third behind Petra Vlahova and teammate Lara Gut-Behrami.

back to square one

As it is understandable, it is clear, therefore, that Gisin turned his attention to the highest possible goals for next winter. And nothing would have been too believable – even more so because the 28-year-old had already proven last season in the downhill and super-G what successes he was capable of.

But instead of resuming snow training in full swing in the summer and laying the groundwork for a long winter’s competition, Gisin had to go back to field one. In early July, the Engelberg woman fell ill with Pfeiffer’s glandular fever. The usual training schedule was out of the question. Instead, there were days when the athlete simply lay flat due to lack of energy and did not take a step.

Glad about Rank 25 at the start of the season

It was a long time since Gisin found his way back to a fairly normal training session on and off skis due to insidious virus disease. On 23 October, the day of the season opener in Sölden, it was therefore not entirely sure whether she would start the race. Rank 25 in giant slalom was definitely not the result he expected. But Gisin laughed and just said “super happy, I’m here again”.

As a result, things went step by step. 5th place was already the first exclamation point in Levi’s second slalom. In order not to over-tax the still-weak body, Gisin then waived starting the pace in Canada in consultation with the coaches. Instead, he placed another training block in Switzerland. 10th place each in the super-G (Saint Moritz) and downhill (Val d’Isre) gave her the certainty that she could do well again in the speed disciplines.

back to normal

She’s slowly but surely feeling back to normal, Gisin says. However, she was surprised that she was able to finish third in the first of two giant slaloms at Courchevel. He described his 15th World Cup podium place, third in the giant slalom category, “absurd”. Even after the first run, in which she was the only rider to come close to Mikaela Shiffrin by more than a second, the 28-year-old spoke of the importance that “I can keep my energy up.”

Of course, not everything went ideal for Gisin in the final round. But it had nothing to do with personal energy level, but rather the fact that he chose a visor that was too dark for the shady steep slope. Nevertheless, now behind 72-time World Cup winner Shifrin and Swede Sarah Hector, she was able to return to the top 3 with confidence. If this becomes a permanent normality then Gisin will be the last to object.