The 1998/99 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup organized by the FIS began on October 24, 1998 in Sölden and ended on March 14, 1999 on the occasion of the World Cup final in the Sierra Nevada . 33 races were held for the men (10 downhill runs , 6 super-G , 8 giant slaloms , 9 slaloms ). For women there were 34 races (9 downhill runs, 8 super-G, 9 giant slaloms, 8 slaloms). There were also two combination evaluations.
In the slalom in Park City came Pierrick Bourgeat on November 22 for his first victory, in which he was located (with start-No. 13, so that in the second category of the top runners) after the first run, only to 14th place.
Benjamin Raich , in his maiden victory at the night slalom in Schladming (January 7th), which he celebrated with No. 28, was the twenty-third after the 1st round, a new record for improving his rank to victory (he was 1.29 seconds behind the " Half-time leader “ Jure Košir ). There have been several upheavals at all; on the one hand came u. a. Kjetil André Aamodt from 13 to 3, on the other hand the leading trio was dispersed in the worsening conditions (especially the slope had become slower): Košir fell back to 5th place, the second, Thomas Stangassinger , was eliminated and the third, Giorgio Rocca , found himself on rank 16. (The greatest improvement so far to victory in a men's slalom had been made on December 17, 1974 by Ingemar Stenmark in Madonna di Campiglio , when he had made it from 22nd place, but also his maiden victory , but with a different starting order).
Women:
In her first victory in what was only her fifth World Cup race (slalom in Mammoth Mountain on December 3rd), Anja Pärson had the number 36, the second highest starting number ever to win a women's slalom ( Renate Götschl had the highest on March 14th 1993 with no. 42 in Lillehammer ) and the 17-year-old also achieved the currently (January 2019) highest ranking improvement ever achieved in a women's slalom, because she was only classified in 15th place after the first run; in addition, her lead over second-placed Zalli Steggall was only 0.01 s.
Mammoth Mountain also brought Christiane Mitterwallner the maiden win (it should remain her only win) when she started in the Super-G with the starting number. 37 still caught her team colleague Renate Götschl, who started the race with No. 30, for 0.05 s.
Sabine Egger scored her first victory in the night slalom in Berchtesgaden on January 8th , leaving her one hundredth of a second ahead of her teammate Ingrid Salvenmoser , for whom it would also have been the first victory.
So far she had never won (third place in the giant slalom at the final in Crans-Montana on March 21, 1992), but on January 16, Corinne Rey-Bellet achieved two victories in one day in St. Anton am Arlberg which was the case for the first time in the women's area. (Probably Erika Hess had won two races in Alpe d'Huez on March 21, 1982 , namely giant slalom and slalom, but she only needed to drive the second round of the "giant".) Bellet was involved in both races , initially in the departure postponed from January 14th from 9.30 a.m., then in the Super-G from 1.45 p.m. the start number. 4th
In the traditional Arlberg ski resort of St. Anton, Trine Bakke was also able to stand on the top podium for the first time on January 17th with a victory in the slalom, which also meant the first World Cup victory in a slalom for the Norwegian women's team - the last victory in a "significant" slalom was that of Inger Bjørnbakken when she won the gold medal on February 3, 1958 at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Bad Gastein in 1958 .
Ultimately, Janica Kostelić won the first World Cup victory personally and also for the Croatian Ski Association in the St. Anton combination (January 16/17).
Sébastien Amiez was able to improve from 22nd in the first run to 2nd in the slalom in Aspen (November 28th).
The ÖSV men were badly beaten on the downhill in Val-d'Isère (December 12th): Norbert Holzknecht was best fifteenth (Hermann Maier came in 36th). After snowfall overnight, the top numbers were at a disadvantage, only from the mid 20s onwards did the sun and the faster piste cause surprises: Winner Lasse Kjus wore the number 24 - the still unknown Antoine Dénériaz in fourth place had the number 34 , Audun Grønvold came in 5th with No. 45, Kevin Wert with No. 44 on 7th - and 2 Slovenes on 7th and 10th (with (46) Brezavsek with 46 and (33) Peter Pen with 33).
The slalom on December 14th in Sestriere was a night slalom; For the first time, Giorgio Rocca, announced in the Italian media as the upcoming “slalom superstar”, moved somewhat into the spotlight when he started with start no. 67th and 17th place after the first run with the second-best time in the 2nd round, he finished in 7th place.
Patrick Holzer turned out to be a “party crash” at the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora (January 5th) by finishing sixth in the first run (seven years after his maiden win on January 12th, 1992 at the Super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ) snatched the victory and relegated the three ÖSV men leading after the first run, Christian Mayer , Hans Knauß and Benjamin Raich, one place back.
At the slalom in Kranjska Gora (January 6th) Jure Košir won appropriately (with No. 1 and already first after the first run), but the advances by Benjamin Raich from 15th to 3rd and Rainer Schönfelder (No. 42! ) from 26 to 4.
At the slalom in Wengen (January 17), the driver with start no. 16 Lasse Kjus, who went into the first run with a rather "accident", could possibly win: He did a half pirouette on his stick and only finished 16th. His fastest time in the second run brought him 0.54 s behind Rank 3.
Even Bode Miller moved a little in the spotlight: With No. 54 started and after race one in 18th place, he advanced in the second passage on rank 4 with the second best time.. The US-American also made a name for himself in the giant slalom, because in Ofterschwang (February 27th) he (starting number 25) was also fourth in fourth place.
The first descent in Kitzbühel on January 22nd was a "sprint descent".
At the finals in the Sierra Nevada , Benjamin Raich competed in a World Cup descent for the first time, with a deficit of 2.16 s and only 24th of the 27 classified.
Women:
On the first descent in Lake Louise (November 27th), Martina Ertl achieved her best approach result so far with rank 4, in contrast, Switzerland with Corinne Rey-Bellet, moreover with "only" rank 22, only brought one lady into the World Cup (the runners was Sylviane Berthod 39th).
Double winner Renate Götschl also wore the start number in the second descent (November 28). 12; In this race, the third Regina Häusl achieved the first downhill podium since third place on December 4, 1993 in Tignes. After numbers 4 and 17 there were longer interruptions due to poor visibility.
In the slalom in Mammoth Mountain (December 3rd), which is also referred to under “Premier Victories”, the second round was not started with 30th place, but with Pärson in 15th place due to the strong wind, which gave the Swede an advantage while the next the 1st run leading Sabine Egger had to struggle with the bad weather.
The slaloms on Semmering (December 28th) and in Berchtesgaden (January 8th) were night slaloms , while the downhill run on February 27th in Åre was a "sprint run".
For the first time a World Cup race (cross-gender) should have been held on New Year's Day, u. between the Super-G in Maribor , but heavy fog made it necessary to postpone it to January 2nd. So there were two races that day, initially at 9 a.m. the Super-G supplement and at 12 p.m. the giant slalom planned for that day (which was again somewhat affected by the fog).
On April 23, Katja Seizinger announced her resignation after a knee injury.
Injuries
On January 21, Patrick Ortlieb suffered a thigh fracture during a training fall for the downhill races on the "Streif" in Kitzbühel. This injury resulted in his retirement from ski racing.
At the first Super-G in Cortina d'Ampezzo (January 22nd), Catherine Borghi , who had ridden with No. 30, fell just before the finish line and suffered a fractured tibia and fibula.
Final decisions
At the beginning of the World Cup final in the Sierra Nevada, the overall men's World Cup looked like a three-way battle between Kjus, Aamodt and last year's winner Hermann Maier , but Maier only achieved 9th (downhill), 7th (super-G) and 16th place in the final (Slalom), in the final giant slalom he had no chance of overall victory and was eliminated. It was not until this last race that the duel between the two Norwegians decided: Lasse Kjus had 1429 points, Kjetil André Aamodt 1397 points. Kjus was seventh in the giant slalom and received 36 points for this, totaling 1465 points. Because of this constellation, Aamodt would have needed a second place to overtake Kjus, but he finished fifth and therefore remained behind his teammate. At this point in time, his 23 point lead was the narrowest relative lead ever achieved for the men and the absolutely tightest since 100 points were awarded for the victory. This record lasted until 2007 when Aksel Lund Svindal won by 13 points over Benjamin Raich .
The women's final could not be carried out completely: The Super-G scheduled for March 11 had to be canceled due to strong gusts of wind; at the slalom on March 12th (planned as a "night event") only the 1st run could be run; Due to the bad slope conditions, athlete spokeswoman Pernilla Wiberg opposed a second run, although she could not take the chance to win the discipline ranking herself (Anja Pärson was in the lead ahead of Egger and Wiberg). So there was no evaluation - and Sabine Egger was the winner of the small ball. Alexandra Meissnitzer's victory in the Super G World Cup was the first overall overall victory for the Austrian women in a discipline since a separate “World Cup ball” was awarded for it from 1985/86. As the overall World Cup winner, Meissnitzer was already determined after the descent in St. Moritz (March 5th) when she (curiously, ex aequo with her pursuer Hilde Gerg ) finished fifth.
Special events
At the Super-G in Innsbruck on the Patscherkofel (December 21), the ÖSV men's team achieved nine- fold success , which has remained unmatched since (March 2019).
The entire team of the Austrian Ski Association achieved 98 podium places and thus improved the record of 87 set by the runners of the Swiss Association in the 1986/87 season. At that time the "SSV women" with 50 ranks in the "Top 3" made up the majority contributed, it was now the "ÖSV men" with 58.
Leave kjus
Alexandra Meissnitzer
Michael von Grünigen
Hilde Gerg
Luca Cattaneo
Chad Fleischer
Marco Büchel
Pierrick Bourgeat
Jure Košir
Pernilla Wiberg
Mélanie Turgeon
Janica Kostelić
Zali Steggall
