The 2005/06 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup organized by the FIS began on October 22, 2005 in Sölden and ended on March 19, 2006 on the occasion of the World Cup final in Åre . 36 races were held for men (9 downhill runs , 6 super-G , 8 giant slaloms , 10 slaloms , 3 super combinations ). There were also 36 races for women (8 downhill runs each and Super-G, 9 giant slaloms and 9 slaloms each, 2 super combinations). There was also a classic combination rating for men. The season finale was a team competition held for the first time .
The overall World Cup victory for Janica Kostelić was only fixed in the final, with the Croatian not starting on March 15th. Then 4th place in the Super-G was enough for her because Anja Pärson was eliminated; Her two final victories, each with two fastest times, underlined her special class. The downhill ranking had already been fixed on January 28th: Michaela Dorfmeister was fourth in Cortina, Kildow ninth - so the Lower Austrian was unattainable with 452 to 330 points. Dorfmeister also won the Super-G prematurely, namely on March 3rd in Kvitfjell , when she moved away from 446 to 546 points as a participant in the "triple victory", while her competitor Alexandra Meissnitzer, twenty-second to her 386 points, only nine more points cashed. There were no questions about the other three ratings either. The second super combination of the season was not played until March 4th, but there was again the result Kostelić before Pärson.
Men's
The question about the overall World Cup victory, which was only theoretical in any case, was already answered before the four final races, namely on March 11 at the second slalom in Shigakōgen : Aksel Lund Svindal would have needed a victory (if Benjamin Raich failed at the same time ), but at 1:26 pm local time he was (as eleventh after the first run he had taken the lead) immediately replaced by the next starter, Kentaro Minagawa , at the top. The combination, which in addition to the three super combinations also included the "classic" ones in Kitzbühel, was decided in the last competition on February 3rd.
In the final, the small balls in the downhill, the Super-G and the giant slalom were awarded: In the downhill three runners had the opportunity to intercept Walchhofer, who was leading with 498 points, whereas Marco Büchel should have achieved the almost impossible with 400 points ( and recorded a zero report with rank 16). Daron Rahlves with 408 points needed a win (and Walchhofer had no points) (36 points for 7th place came out). Fritz Strobl with 441 points came with start no. 22, but could not break the current (and also in the final ranking) leading trio, was already defeated in fourth (which he remained) before Walchhofer started last at number 23 and finished 11th.
For Hermann Maier (as in the previous year) it was not enough for the Super-G discipline victory: In fourth, he was 9 hundredths of a second behind Svindal, who overtook Maier by two points. In the giant slalom, Raich was 19 points ahead of Massimiliano Blardone - and so was the result on March 17th, which increased his lead over the Italian to 39 points. In the slalom, Giorgio Rocca , who was dominant in the first races of the season (as the leader after the first run), was eliminated, but he was already unattainable before the race because Kalle Palander did not contest the slalom.
Injuries
Mario Scheiber suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in his right knee during giant slalom training in Sun Peaks , (Canada) on November 12th, which meant that the season was over for him before it really started.
For Hilde Gerg the end came on November 16: In a fall during Super-G training in Copper Mountain in the USA, she tore the outer meniscus and tore the posterior cruciate ligament in her right knee and suffered an impression fracture in the head of the tibia. As early as 2000, Gerg had to fight his way back to the top after a fibula fracture. In December 2002 Gerg suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on the descent in Lake Louise. On November 20, 2005, the Lenggrieserin announced her resignation.
Marlies Oester fell while training in Loveland , Colorado, tore an inner ligament in her left knee and traveled home. During the MRI in Switzerland, it turns out that she had also torn the posterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. On December 12th, Oester was seen by Dr. Christian Schenk operates in Feldkirch . This injury meant the end of the career of the bronze medalist in combination at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz .
Maria Riesch stayed true to bad luck: when she fell in the second run of the giant slalom in Aspen, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee and also suffered a meniscus lesion and a sprained bone. That was her fourth injury within 13 months, because in addition to the two injuries from the previous season, she had to interrupt the preparation for the season in mid-September due to a bone sprain on her left shin.
On December 29th, Tobias Grünenfelder was both sensational and unlucky in the downhill run in Bormio . Despite a fall, he finished third shortly before the finish line. The victory would have been possible, because in the lowest intermediate time Grünenfelder was three hundredths faster than winner Rahlves. After the fall, after which he slid to the finish lying on his side, Grünenfelder was only 35 hundredths behind the American. In the fall, the inner ligament in the right knee was affected. - Hans Grugger also fell, already in the upper part of the route; after his admission by helicopter to the Ospedale Morelli de Sondalo, a hip dislocation turned out to be on the left, which made his start at the upcoming Olympic Games impossible.
On January 24th, the women suffered two serious injuries in the downhill training in Cortina d'Ampezzo : Caroline Lalive broke her left kneecap after jumping without falling. She flew to the US on January 27th.
Johanna Schnarf had to undergo an operation on the left cruciate ligament on January 26th, and a cartilage damage to the left external miniscus was repaired; the healing time was given as 3 to 6 months.
Sonja Nef had - as it turned out during an MRI examination in Bern on January 30th - an acute hip infection, which is why she was ordered to take a three-week break from racing (so that she was absent from the Olympics). She had previously not started the giant slalom in Cortina d'Ampezzo on January 29, for which she had submitted her entry. On February 21, Nef announced her resignation and justified this step with the lack of athletic success and health problems.
Renate Götschl had to undergo an operation on February 25th after a ligament injury sustained in the last race before the Olympics, the giant slalom in Cortina.
On February 28, just 1½ weeks after winning the bronze medal in the Olympic Super-G, the season for Ambrosi Hoffmann came to an abrupt end. The Davoser tore a cruciate ligament in his right knee during giant slalom training in Adelboden. A more detailed examination on Wednesday, March 1st, in the Davos hospital revealed the devastating findings for Hoffmann. That evening he was met by Dr. Christian Schenk operates in Feldkirch.
During the final descent in Åre on March 15th, Klaus Kröll suffered a fracture of the tibia head in his left leg and a broken wrist. He was therefore flown to Innsbruck that afternoon, where he was treated by Wulf Glötzer at the university clinic.
Worth mentioning
Atle Skårdal became Chief Race Director of the FIS on March 7, 2005 in the women's alpine races; he replaced the Styrian Kurt Hoch . The 57-year-old Hoch, who has held this job since the World Cup reorganization in 1991, resigned his post after 14 years at the end of the season because he was dissatisfied with the new FIS contract, according to which the race directors would be subordinate to the FIS General Secretariat and bound by instructions was.
At the FIS spring conference on 21./22. May in Munich it was decided to award a crystal ball for the discipline winners in the combination.
The victory on November 26, 2005 in the Downhill in Lake Louise meant Fritz Strobl's first World Cup victory since Olympic gold in 2002 .
Lake Louise was also the start of the great career of Aksel Lund Svindal , because his maiden victory in the Super-G there on November 27 already heralded the discipline victory in the Super-G and second place in the overall World Cup for the current season.
Hannes Reichelt also achieved his first World Cup victory at the Super-G on December 1st in Beaver Creek , making this ski station his "favorite place" (with three other Super-G victories in the World Cup and one at the 2015 World Championships).
Stéphane Tissot then surprised at the slalom on December 4th when he started with start no. 35 (and only 19th place after the 1st run) advanced to 2nd place with the fastest time.
On December 7th, Kilian Albrecht returned to the ÖSV-A-squad and was allowed to start the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio on December 12th , where he started with start number. 33 was eliminated in the first run.
The women of the Swiss Association celebrated their first World Cup victory since the 2003/04 season finale through Nadia Styger in Aspen on December 9th. Back then, too, Styger was Super G winner on March 11th.
However, the Swiss-Ski technicians experienced an extremely bad season , which also reflected the health problems of “No. 1 runner” Sonja Nef , who, after disappointing results, could no longer start in the other races and ultimately still during the race resigned the season. In the slalom came in Aspen not the classification in Spindleruv Mlyn occupied Nef as only rank 23, similar to the Bear Mountain in Zagreb Rank 21 - the night slalom in Levi was Rabea Grand indeed Twenty-third, but there was timed no World Cup points. None of the other slaloms made it into the ranking (Grand dropped out in Ofterschwang after finishing 15th in the first run). All these circumstances were also the reason for the association not to name a runner for the Olympic slalom. The same dreary situation presented itself in the giant slalom, where Nef came 22nd in Aspen and Fränzi Aufdenblatten with the high starting number 60 came 26th. In Lienz, Nadia Styger was in 20th place, in Cortina d'Ampezzo on 16 and Aufdenblatten, no. 62, on 24 - after an empty report in the first Ofterschwang race, Aufdenblatten (no. 55) and Styger took 22nd and 27th in Aufdenblatten (No. 48) ended the season in Hafjell in 19th place , because as a logical consequence no runner, neither for slalom nor giant slalom, was eligible for the final in Åre .
At the aforementioned Aspen race on December 9th there were timekeeping problems; Initially, Alexandra Meissnitzer appeared on rank 3, but the mark for Andrea Fischbacher , which was only determined in a second time measurement (the clock continued to run after crossing the finish line) was subsequently included in the evaluation.
Nothing came of the first victory for the Swiss men in 22 months, because Didier Défago with 0.19 seconds ahead of Michael Walchhofer was subsequently disqualified as the supposed winner of the super combined on December 11th in Val-d'Isère . A precision device determined that instead of the permitted 55 millimeters for one of the binding plates on his ski, it was 55.17 mm. This non-victory ultimately meant that the Swiss Ski Men remained without a win for the entire season (and thus two seasons en suite). The biggest leap forward from the top riders was made by Rainer Schönfelder , who with the second-best running time (behind Jean-Baptiste Grange ) improved from position 23 after the descent to 3rd place.
At the Super-G in Val Gardena on December 16, there was not only Hans Grugger's first victory in this discipline, but also the strange start of Fritz Strobl, who fell forward when he pushed off the starting ramp - his later part-times would have a top position but by doing that he lost almost 10 seconds on the best first time measurement.
On December 17th, Kristian Ghedina wanted to win the Val Gardena Downhill for the fifth time and overtake Franz Klammer (4 victories), but the unfavorable conditions for him as the fastest in training (starting number 30) did not allow more than 4th place. Marco Büchel was able to achieve his first victory in a World Cup downhill and also for the second time after Markus Foser in 1993 a Liechtenstein downhill victory (also here in Val Gardena).
Also on December 17th there was the women's downhill in Val-d'Isère, the start of which had been postponed by 90 minutes due to the weather conditions and was held in poor visibility conditions and after start no. 47 (fall of Urška Rabič ) was canceled. At least the podium did not offer any surprises.
On December 21, Janica Kostelić , giant slalom winner at the 2002 Olympics, won her first victory in this discipline in the World Cup; Špindlerův Mlýn was also the first venue for a World Cup race; previously it had been the Jasná and Vysoké Tatry resorts from what was then Czechoslovakia, which belong to Slovakia .
After the slalom in Kranjska Gora on December 22nd, in which he was only 60th in the first run, Bode Miller refused to check his shoes and was fined CHF 999; the US federation paid this fine.
A curiosity at the night slalom in Zagreb-Sljeme, where Janica Kostelić improved from 7th to 3rd after losing a stick with a glove on the first goal in the second run.
On January 7th, Fredrik Nyberg advanced to 2nd place in the giant slalom in Adelboden, becoming the oldest podium skier in the history of the Alpine Ski World Cup. At 36 years and 290 days, the Swede replaced the Italian Kristian Ghedina as “Stockerl-Methuselah” in the World Cup (Ghedina was 36 years and 49 days old when he finished second in the Chamonix downhill on January 8, 2005).
Benjamim Raich was able to win for the first time in Adelboden (so far, third place there in 1999 was the best result).
For the Swiss hosts there was the worst Adelboden debacle in skiing history. Didier Cuche and Marc Berthod only ended up in 21st place, making them the only Swiss skiers to get World Cup points in their home race. The worst giant slalom results of the Confederates were dated January 3rd and February 28th, 2004, when Ambrosi Hoffmann and Didier Défago were 25th as the best Swiss in Flachau and Kranjska Gora. However, on December 2, 1989 in Mont Sainte-Anne no men from Switzerland at all made it into the classification.
On January 10, Isolde Kostner gave a special reason for her resignation, which was surprising for the skiing world: she was pregnant, which is why participation in the Olympic Games in Turin was excluded.
Giorgio Rocca , who had been successful in a slalom five times en suite , gave away the chance to break the record of his compatriot Alberto Tomba on January 22nd at the slalom on the Kitzbühel Ganslernhang , who in the 1994/95 season had 7 races in a row from the beginning of the season had decided for himself. Rocca could not qualify for run 2 after a slip (he rose back). There was also a surprise with Reinfried Herbst's 2nd place ; the Salzburg man had fallen out of all cadres and worked his way up again at his own expense.
During the super combination in St. Moritz on January 22nd, Michaela Dorfmeister escaped a collision with a piste helper acting as a "section leader" on the descent before the left turn after a hilltop, where the second intermediate time was taken.
The first giant slalom in Ofterschwang on February 3rd was the replacement race for Maribor on January 7th.
For the second time in World Cup history there was first place in triplicate, and again for the women. After that in the giant slalom in Sölden on October 26, 2002 ( Andrine Flemmen , Nicole Hosp and Tina Maze ) it was now the Super-G in Kvitfjell: with starting numbers 26 (Styger), 27 (Kildow) and 30 (Dorfmeister) there were three times 1: 18.65 - and bad luck for Kelly VanderBeek , who initially led with No. 16 and ended up in 4th place in the final classification with just 0.01 s.
The super combination of Kvitfjell on March 4th consisted of super-G and slalom for the first time, and Janica Kostelić prevailed for the fifth time (with World Championships and Olympics even for the seventh time) in a row.
Curiosity at the giant slalom in Yongpyong on March 4th and 5th: The winner on March 5th, Ted Ligety , who had achieved his first ever World Cup victory, simply slept through the day before, tormented by jetlag.
At the final races in Åre, Lasse Kjus was on his farewell lap with a "retired" shirt on which important career data was noted, and skis on which his (almost bald) likeness could be seen. The Super-G on March 16 was definitely his last World Cup race. As in the previous year's final, there was a US double victory (with the same people, at that time, however, ex aequo) - and for the first time since 1996 no Austrian was on the podium in a Super-G.
At the triple "Ex aequo" in Hafjell's Super-G mentioned above, Michaela Dorfmeister advanced to become the oldest winner of a World Cup at the age of 32 and 302 days (she was only replaced by Elisabeth Görgl on December 21, 2014).
The Italian Severino Bottero , who lives in Rovereto and is currently the trainer of the French men's giant slalom team, was killed in a car accident on the way from Piedmont to Bernex at 8.26 a.m. The accident of the coach sitting alone in the car happened on the Chamonix – Geneva motorway near Sallanches in Haute-Savoie. The French team competed in the following competitions (January 7th / 8th in Adelboden ) with a black ribbon.
Benjamin Raich
Janica Kostelić
Aksel Lund Svindal
Anja Pärson
Giorgio Rocca
Marco Büchel
Daron Rahlves
Erik Guay
Tobias Grünenfelder
Kalle Palander
Stéphane Tissot
Alois Vogl
Akira Sasaki
Tina Maze
María José Rienda
