Vincent Kriechmayr is the best Austrian in 13th place.
Keystone
Marco Odermatt is bitterly disappointed after his second place in Kitzbühel. For the Austrians, this must feel like a slap in the face.
- Vincent Kriechmayr finishes 13th in the Kitzbühel Downhill, making him the best Austrian.
- No Austrian in the top 10 – this has never happened before in the Hahnenkamm Downhill.
- Kriechmayr’s last victory in a Downhill for Austria was in March 2023.
The ÖSV team suffers another blow on Saturday. Vincent Kriechmayr loses 1.48 seconds on the Streif to winner Giovanni Franzoni and is the best of his team in 13th place. This means that no Austrian makes it into the top 10 – something that has never happened before in Kitzbühel. The previous worst result was in 2017, when Matthias Mayer came eighth.
“What a shame. I would have hoped for more,” says Kriechmayr. He has now had enough and has decided to forgo the upcoming downhill in Crans-Montana in order to prepare optimally for the Olympic Games in Bormio.
- 13th Vincent Kriechmayr (+1.48)
- 24th Manuel Traninger (+1.66)
- 25th Raphael Haaser (+1.69)
- 31st Vincent Wieser (+2.02)
- 34th Stefan Babinsky (+2.04)
- 36th Andreas Ploier (+2.13)
- OUT: Daniel Hemetsberger and Stefan Rieser
Austria has been waiting for a downhill victory since March 2023
However, it comes as no surprise that the Austrians cannot celebrate a victory. Kriechmayr stood at the top of the podium in the supreme discipline in Soldeu in March 2023. Since then, Red-White-Red has been waiting for another triumph. 22 downhill races in a row without a win is also historic. This sets the negative record. ÖSV Alpine Director Christian Mitter says: “The result is not satisfactory. Nothing went right today, we have to look at why.”
Oh, how spoiled we Swiss ski fans are. This season alone, a Swiss skier has topped the podium in four out of five downhill races. Marco Odermatt won three times and Franjo von Allmen once.