First wins of the season for Vincent Kriechmayr and Elena Curtoni
The race weekend got off to a perfect start for the HEAD Worldcup Rebels: in Val Gardena (Gröden), Vincent Kriechmayr claimed his first win of the season in Thursday's downhill on the shortened Saslong. Third place went to Matthias Mayer, and six HEAD racers finished in the top 9. In St. Moritz, Elena Curtoni also took her first outright victory of the season in Friday's downhill. Corinne Suter finished third.
“Elena Curtoni skied a brilliant race in these difficult conditions. She already showed with her win in Bansko that she knows how to handle them,” said HEAD Racing Director Rainer Salzgeber. “Many of the young athletes also skied really well, Emma Aicher and Cande Moreno for example. In the men's race it was a perfect result for us, with six racers among the top nine. Vincent Kriechmayr said himself that he has to go full throttle to have a chance, and that is exactly what he did. What I said in the USA is now being confirmed: we are in a really strong position.”
13th World Cup win for Vincent Kriechmayr
For Vincent Kriechmayr it was the 13th World Cup win of his career and his sixth in the downhill. In Val Gardena, the Austrian had previously only stood on the top step of the podium in the super-G. “I risked my life out there today, except for the Ciaslat, and tried to be right on the limit the whole way,” said Vincent Kriechmayr at the finish. “You could see in the last downhills that otherwise you are nowhere. At the Ciaslat I maybe kept two per cent in reserve, because I had seen that Matthias jumped a little too far there. It was certainly my best run down this course so far.”
Six Rebels in the top 9
Matthias Mayer finished third, just 13 hundredths of a second behind Kriechmayr. For the 32-year-old Austrian it was his second podium of the season after third place in the super-G at Lake Louise. With Frenchman Johan Clarey in fourth, German Josef Ferstl in sixth, Canadian James Crawford in seventh and Swiss Beat Feuz in ninth place, no fewer than six HEAD Worldcup Rebels finished among the best nine. Adrien Theaux from France and Ryan Cochran-Siegle from the USA tied for 14th place. Friday's super-G in Val Gardena had to be cancelled because of fog.
Elena Curtoni claims her third World Cup win
In the women's downhill in St. Moritz, Elena Curtoni coped best with the difficult conditions. The Italian won ahead of her compatriot Sofia Goggia and her HEAD teammate Corinne Suter. For Curtoni it was her third World Cup victory, following her wins in the downhill in Bansko in 2020 and in the super-G in Cortina in 2022. “I'm happy with what I showed today. I skied very aggressively. It was difficult because of the poor visibility. I had a very good run,” the winner said afterwards.
Corinne Suter on the podium in all four speed races
Corinne Suter once again confirmed her strong form. The Swiss athlete finished third and has now stood on the podium in all four speed races of the season so far. Just like the men, the women also put in an enormously strong performance as a team. In total, eight HEAD athletes made it into the top 15: Ragnhild Mowinckel from Norway and Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland tied for eighth place, Laura Pirovano from Italy was tenth, Cornelia Hütter from Austria eleventh, Nina Ortlieb from Austria 14th and Emma Aicher from Germany 15th.