The 2004/05 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup organized by the FIS began on October 23, 2004 in Sölden and ended on March 13, 2005 on the occasion of the World Cup final in Lenzerheide . 36 races were held for men (11 downhill runs , 7 super-G , 8 giant slaloms , 9 slaloms ). There were 33 races for women (8 downhill runs, Super-G, giant slalom and slalom). There was also a combination (organized for the first time in the form of a super combination ).
Women: The overall World Cup was decided in the last race, the giant slalom in Lenzerheide: Anja Pärson had 1359 points before this race, Janica Kostelić 1324 points. After the first round, Pärson was in fifth and Kostelić in sixth place. In the second round, Kostelić was the first of the two to start, but fell behind three runners who started before her. Pärson, who started immediately after her, had the worst run time of the second run after a serious mistake. Since the four leading runners after the first round (María José Rienda as half-time leader and thus the last of this quartet) all stayed ahead of Kostelić, this was eighth and received 32 points, Pärson was 17th without points. Had Kostelić finished seventh, she would have received 36 points and won the World Cup. It was the narrowest lead ever achieved by the women until the 2010/11 season decision .
Men: The overall decision came down more and more to a duel between Bode Miller and Benjamin Raich. The Pitztal managed to catch up 160 points in Kranjska Gora with victory in the giant slalom and third place in the slalom (Miller was eliminated both times in the second round), although Raich by one in the Super-G on March 6th in Kvitfjell with fourth place Place better than Miller, that's how Miller achieved a practically safe lead in the speed races at the finale in Lenzerheide . The starting position in front of Lenzerheide was 1348 to 1296 points for Miller, after rank 2 in the downhill and victory in the Super-G compared to 11th place by Raich, this changed to 1528 to 1344. Therefore, Miller was already placed in the top 15 in the giant slalom (and moreover Raich, who could at least have comforted himself with victories in the disciplines of giant slalom, slalom and combination, should have won). In the Super-G classification, Miller snatched the victory on March 11th from Hermann Maier, who was only 0.39 seconds behind, but was only 9th in this close race.
Injuries
After a fall on September 26, 2004 during Super-G training in Sölden , during which he suffered an "unshifted" fracture of the head of his left tibia, Christian Mayer went back to the World Cup for the time being (he started two giant slaloms, with he could not qualify for the second round in that one in Val-d'Isère as 31st and at the next in Alta Badia with rank 26 he could not catch up with his form), whereupon the ÖSV decided on December 20th that the Carinthian in the rest of the season no longer races, but claims the injured status.
Maria Riesch initially suffered a shoulder injury on November 23, which forced her to take a break from racing before she achieved another top result with third place in the Super-G in St. Moritz. But on January 12th she was injured again at the Super-G in Cortina d'Ampezzo , she had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, had an operation on January 24th and was canceled for the rest of the season.
Josef Strobl was only allowed to start for Slovenia on November 12, 2004 by both the FIS and the ÖSV , but he was injured on November 25 during downhill training in Lake Louise and suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in his right knee. So he was out for the rest of the season.
Daniel Défago , Didier's younger brother, had to announce the end of his career on December 3rd: The former junior world champion had not recovered from a knee injury.
On December 3, Mélanie Suchet also suffered an injury on the first descent in Lake Louise: it was just an inconspicuous "wobble", she classified herself in 46th place. But it was a torn patellar tendon; the Frenchwoman announced on December 10th that she wanted to end her career; on December 13th she was operated on in Lyon .
The fall on December 7th in the Super-G in Beaver Creek ultimately meant the end of his career for Franco Cavegn (cruciate ligament tear and cartilage damage on the right and an internal ligament strain in the left knee). On September 30, 2005, Cavegn announced his resignation. He had tried ski training again in the summer, but was never symptom-free.
Brigitte Obermoser's fall while driving in for the Super-G in Altenmarkt (December 11th), whereby the anterior cruciate ligament in the right knee was torn and there was also a collateral ligament injury (the meniscus had also detached from the ligament, but remained intact). Although she was able to get the injury under control with alternative medical methods, she did not achieve top results afterwards (15th place in the Super-G in Cortina d'Ampezzo on January 12th was still the best), so on January 24th she waived for announced the World Championships in Bormio. She only achieved a top result with the Super G victory on April 14 at the Austrian championships.
On January 4, Didier Cuche suffered an “isolated” cruciate ligament tear in his right knee during giant slalom training in Adelboden (he was successfully operated on in Lausanne on January 18 ; that ended the season for him).
On January 7th, Catherine Borghi decided to cancel her World Cup season; she had not recovered from the fracture in her left wrist that she suffered in Altenmarkt.
On January 20th, training for the Kitzbühel downhill run was canceled after Thomas Graggaber (he was wearing start number 31) had a serious fall ; Graggaber suffered a serial rib fracture and a serious shoulder injury, and the broken ribs damaged the lungs (pneumothorax); he was first flown to the Kitzbühel hospital.
Karin Blaser suffered a broken ankle during giant slalom training on Nassfeld on January 24th and was operated on in Graz that evening .
On February 25, Jürg Grünenfelder suffered a fracture of the left tibia and fibula in a fall during Super-G training in Lenzerheide , which forced him to take a break of at least four months; he was operated on the same day in the Chur Cantonal Hospital and the fracture was fixed with nails. Grünenfelder had already suffered a serious knee injury during summer training in South America in 2000. At that time he broke his kneecap, also on his left leg, and damaged the cartilage.
After the end of the season, on April 6th, Nadja Kamer suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in Hoch-Ybrig while skiing, which she viewed as giant slalom training
Worth mentioning
The Swiss women were without a podium, the men without a win.
Bode Miller 's Super G victory on November 28th in Lake Louise meant that he expanded the small circle of only four men who had won a World Cup race in all disciplines ( Pirmin Zurbriggen , Marc Girardelli , Günther Mader , Kjetil André Aamodt ). He was also the only number one in another record list, as there had never been three victories by an athlete in the first three races in the history of the men's World Cup. With his victory in the slalom in Sestriere on December 13th , he became only the second athlete (after Girardelli 1988/89) in World Cup history to celebrate World Cup victories in the four disciplines of downhill, super-G, giant slalom and slalom in one season (and he only needed 16 days to achieve World Cup triumphs in all four disciplines - for comparison, "Gira" needed 72 days for this historic achievement).
A week later, Lake Louise was another milestone for the US Ski Association, because with her maiden victory in the Downhill on December 3 (she wore the number 17) there was the first World Cup victory for Lindsey Kildow (she also led her unsurpassed Lake Louise Louise series a). Since Bode Miller also won the downhill in Beaver Creek on December 3rd, it happened for the first time since March 11th 1995 that there were two US downhill victories in one day (at that time Picabo Street in Lenzerheide and Kyle Rasmussen in Kvitfjell ) - and that The "US doubles" premiere was also given in the fact that with the current Miller victory ahead of Daron Rahlves , two US runners stood on the podium for the first time in a World Cup downhill run.
Benjamin Raich was "King of Points" with 189 points in Beaver Creek.
The downhill world champion of 2003, Mélanie Turgeon , decided on January 6th not to start the rest of the season because of "weak form". The intention to rebuild for the coming season was not realized, on October 6, 2005, she announced her final resignation.
More than a month before the planned women's races at the World Championships, Santa Caterina was unexpectedly in the spotlight for four days as a substitute location in the World Cup: First it was on 6/7. January two runs that were moved here from Val-d'Isère , then a giant slalom and slalom to replace Berchtesgaden .
The maiden victories by Max Rauffer in the Val Gardena descent and Alois Vogl in the Wengen slalom ended a long period of victory for the DSV men. Rauffer, who was only the fourth German who also achieved the sixth and so far also the last victory to date (May 2017) of a DSV runner in a descent, won for the first time since Markus Wasmeier (January 11, 1992 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ); Franz Vogler and Sepp Ferstl were the other winners. - Vogl became the "successor" of Armin Bittner (January 12, 1991 in Schladming ); he was also only the fourth German with a slalom victory, and it was the 15th slalom victory of the DSV men so far (after 7 by Christian Neureuther , 6 by Armin Bittner and one by Peter Roth ).
Hans Grugger and Ingrid Jacquemod also won for the first time in their careers, with Jacquemod, who comes from Val d'Isère, winning the Val d'Isère replacement run in Santa Caterina, of all places.
Thomas Grandi 's maiden victory in the giant slalom in Alta Badia on December 19 also meant the first World Cup victory for Canada's men in a technical competition.
Also Massimiliano Blardone came on January 11, the giant slalom in Adelboden for his first victory in a World Cup race.
Kristian Ghedina contested his 151st World Cup downhill on December 29th in Bormio (finished 21st); he replaced Peter Wirnsberger (150 runs) as number one on the all-time best list.
As of November 27, 2004, Hans Knauß was subsequently banned for doping for 18 months, which meant that the results he had achieved so far were deleted and the lists of results adjusted. The Knauß results were: 5th place giant slalom Sölden, 4th place downhill and 8th super-G Lake Louise, 13th super-G, 6th place downhill and 16th giant slalom Vail, 6th place Super-G Val Gardena. At this point in time, Bode Miller was leading in the overall World Cup ranking ahead of Benjamin Raich , and the adjustment brought a minimal reduction in the difference from 31 to 29 points. For Knauß, this suspension meant his unintentional premature end of his career, because his appeals were dismissed - and there was no point in waiting for the suspension to expire, which meant that he would miss his final goal, the 2006 Winter Olympics .
Andreas Schifferer made two brand changes for his skis: it was not until May 24 that he switched from “Atomic” to “Rossignol” under an open-ended contract, but this season he switched to “Fischer”.
Renate Götschl celebrated the 100th Downhill World Cup victory for the ÖSV women on January 15th in Cortina d'Ampezzo - with it she also won the three Cortina races so far this year, but the uniqueness of a fourth victory in another downhill on 16. January was denied her by her teammate Michaela Dorfmeister .
The "Crveni Pust" slope in Zagreb had its World Cup premiere on January 20th with a night slalom.
As the leader, Manfred Pranger kept his nerve this time after the first run and was able to achieve his first World Cup success with the slalom victory in Kitzbühel on January 23rd.
The Super-G in Kitzbühel could only be driven on January 24th; the original date of January 21 could not be kept because of the snowfall and the storm. The departure had to be canceled entirely and was added on February 18 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen . - With this year's races, Toni Sailer resigned after twenty years as race director at the Hahnenkamm races.
At the night slalom in Schladming on January 25th there were problems with the timekeeping, according to which the results of the first run for Giorgio Rocca and Manfred Pranger were corrected by 0.50 and 0.59 seconds to their disadvantage. This procedure caused the start of the second run to be postponed by half an hour. Despite this correction, Rocca remained the leader, but made a serious mistake in the second run just before the finish, which threw him back to 21st overall (the winner was pillory). The FIS rejected a protest from the Italian federation on February 7th. The incorrect timing was suspected to have been influenced from outside by a targeted flashlight.
In the Kitzbühel Downhill Addendum on February 18, Michael Walchhofer succeeded in winning for the first time in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and receiving the “FIS aisle”, which had repeatedly become his undoing (and renamed the “Walchhofer Curve”) shortly before the finish conquer; as he also won the next day, it was only the second time after Roland Collombin in 1973 that there was a “double winner”; Walchhofer was also the 16th skier to win a double downhill run.
María José Rienda achieved her first World Cup victory at the giant slalom in Åre (for Spain the first victory since Blanca Fernández Ochoa on December 1, 1991 at the slalom in Lech ); for "swiss ski" on the other hand, it was another low point, which did not bring any lady into the second round.
Anja Pärson won a World Cup Super-G for the first time (after winning the World Championship) in San Sicario on February 25, and a day later a downhill run for the first time (with No. 34) and thus had victories in four different disciplines in one season . In addition to Petra Kronberger and Pernilla Wiberg, she was only the third runner with victories in slalom, giant slalom, super-G and downhill.
Hermann Maier achieved his official 50th World Cup victory on March 6th with the success of the Super-G in Kvitfjell (he himself counted his disallowed giant slalom victory on December 14th, 1997 in Val d'Isère).
At the final in Lenzerheide there were two more debut victories : Stephan Görgl with the giant slalom victory, Sarah Schleper with the slalom victory.
For this final, the Swiss women could not provide a runner in either the Super-G or the giant slalom because they did not appear in the required top 25 of the World Cup rankings.
Florian Eckert also announced his resignation very late, namely on September 14, 2005 ; even later, on October 11th, Max Rauffer also decided against continuing his career.
Bode Miller
Anja Pärson
Michael Walchhofer
Tanja Poutiainen
Janica Kostelić
Antoine Dénériaz
Marco Büchel
Max Rauffer
Jürg Grünenfelder
Kristian Ghedina
Leave kjus
François Bourque
Tina Maze
María José Rienda
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