The 2007/08 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup organized by the FIS began on October 27, 2007 in Sölden and ended on March 16, 2008 on the occasion of the World Cup final in Bormio .
40 races were planned for the men (10 downhill runs , 7 super-G , 8 giant slaloms , 11 slaloms , 4 super combinations ); there was also a combination rating. The planned departure at the season finale in Bormio had to be canceled without replacement. 38 races (10 downhill runs, 7 super-G, 8 giant slalom, 10 slalom, 3 super-combinations) were to be held for women, three races (giant slalom and slalom in Zwiesel , downhill in Bormio) were canceled without replacement. For the second time in the history of the World Cup - after Tamara McKinney and Phil Mahre in 1982/83 - the overall World Cup for both women and men goes to the United States of America .
This season was an interim year without a World Cup or Olympic Games.
World Cup ratings
total
Departure
Super G
The decision in the men's Super G World Cup was one of the tightest in the history of the Alpine Ski World Cup. Hannes Reichelt won the last Super-G in Bormio with a lead of 0.01 seconds. Since Didier Cuche, who had been leading in the World Cup up until then, missed out on the World Cup points by one place, Reichelt won the discipline standings by one point.
Giant slalom
slalom
combination
Podium placements men
Departure
Super G
Giant slalom
slalom
Super combination
combination
Podium placements women
Departure
Super G
Giant slalom
slalom
Super combination
Team competition
The season should have ended with a joint team competition in Bormio. However, this had to be canceled due to bad weather.
Nations Cup
Season course
Premier victories
Men's:
- Marc Gini won the slalom on November 11th on the Reiteralm; It was the 13th victory for Switzerland in a slalom in the history of the World Cup.
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Daniel Albrecht won his first victory in the giant slalom in Beaver Creek on December 2nd .
- For Marco Sullivan (and also his ski brand "Nordica") the win on January 26th in Chamonix meant a first (for the US-American it was this one success in the World Cup).
- In the replacement departure in Kvitfjell realized Werner Heel his first victory.
- In Kvitfjell, Georg Streitberger , who had never been on the podium before, also achieved his first success with his Super G victory, which he achieved due to the serious injury of his roommate Matthias Lanzinger (please see the article "Injuries") experienced with mixed feelings.
- After a total of 10 podium places, six of them in the current season alone, Manfred Mölgg achieved his first victory at the slalom in Kranjska Gora (March 9th) - and this success gave him the chance to have a say in the award of the "small ball" (he had made up 50 points on Jean-Baptiste Grange ).
Women:
World Cup decisions
Men's
Overall:
Bode Miller had his breakthrough in Kvitfjell in the downhill runs with 2nd and 1st place and the Super-G with 2nd place again, while competitor Raich (37th on February 29th and disqualification on the next day after peat error) and 16th conquered only 15 points in the Super-G and was 245 points behind. Before the final in Bormio, Miller was leading with 1387 points ahead of Cuche (1218), Raich (1123) and Mölgg (855). Since the descent was canceled and Cuche, contrary to expectations, remained without points in the Super-G, the "rally" for the overall standings was decided; As a Super-G fourth Raich was able to catch up just 18 points to the intermediate score 1173 to 1409, Cuche should have won both giant slalom and slalom as an “illusionistic goal”. The American then retired from the giant slalom and decided not to participate in the final slalom.
Downhill:
With the cancellation of the final in Bormio (snowfalls on the night of March 11th no training allowed, and without such a downhill due to the regulations no downhill could be held) the discipline ranking was decided with 5 points in favor of Didier Cuche who, on the other hand, had the chance to defend or expand his second place in the overall World Cup.
Super-G:
Before the final, Didier Cuche was 89 points ahead of Christoph Gruber and 99 ahead of Hannes Reichelt , so that the starting position spoke quite clearly in favor of the Swiss, and yet two incidents that the media described as “sensations” occurred: First, they had to Gruber or Reichelt win (which the latter, starting number 16, achieved with a minimal lead of 0.01 s, while Gruber was eliminated), on the other hand, Cuche, who entered the race with number 21 (which was considered "impossible"), was not allowed to win come under the "Top 15", and this of all things happened, where he crossed the finish line in twelfth place, ultimately through his team-mate Daniel Albrecht , who had start no. 26 was the last of the top drivers and still classified in 11th place, had been "boxed out". Once before, in 1987/88, there was only one point ahead in the Super-G, with the previous Pirmin Zurbriggen still overtaking Markus Wasmeier and leading with 57 to 56, but the circumstances were somewhat different (it only had 25 points for the victory and in the whole season only given points for the top 15).
Giant slalom: Benjamin Raich was
able to take the lead with 308 points compared to 285 points in Whistler with third place in front of Ted Ligety (fourth place), but as the leader after the first run he had achieved 40 points less than expected. Ligety took first place with the victory in Kranjska Gora compared to fourth-placed Raich (385 to 358). In the final, after the first run for Raich (2nd place behind Bode Miller; only 7th place for Ligety), things looked promising, but in the 2nd run, in which Miller was eliminated, Ligety still drove to victory (0.29 s behind Raich he converted into a lead of 0.31 s; he would have had to score 28 points less than Raich due to the rule about the higher number of wins in order to be intercepted by him).
Slalom:
Jean-Baptiste Grange went into the final with 512 points and thus 31 points ahead of Mölgg, in third place was Mario Matt (85 points behind; he had missed his great chance in the previous slalom in Kranjska Gora with only 12th place). After the first run, Grange was already defeated in fourth place in view of the Mölgg lead, but he seemed to be on the right path in the second run, before a mistake dropped him to 13th and after the end of the race left him with no points in 16th place. Mölgg had chosen a tactically controlled marching route, with which he classified himself on rank 6.
Combination:
The first decision was made here in the course of the season: Bode Miller was a sure winner thanks to his victory in Val d'Isere on February 3rd; the only competitor had been Jean-Baptiste Grange , who failed in the slalom; the French would have practically won this combination and Miller should have been placed worse than 21st place.
Ladies
Overall:
For a long time it was a three-way battle between Nicole Hosp, Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch. The US-American took a minimal lead (3 points) against Hosp on February 9 with the victory in the downhill from Sestriere , and took 3rd place the next day in the Super-G (compared to ranks 14th from Hosp and 16 from Vonn) A lot of ground is good. Whistler Mountain not only brought Vonn the “little ball” in the downhill classification, but also the sole lead in the overall standings. With 11th place in the final Super-G, the race was over for "defending champion" Hosp considering Vonn's 2nd place - even Maria Riesch in 6th had overtaken her and was 197 points behind Vonn, what a turn away whose overall victory would have required two Riesch victories while the American had no points. While the Partenkircherin was eliminated in both the slalom and giant slalom, Hosp was able to gain 74 points with ranks 4 and 11 and (from her point of view at least) carry out damage limitation with final rank 2.
Downhill:
With her victory in Whistler Mountain, Lindsey Vonn already won, although this was already practically fixed due to her lead (even if at that time there were still two outstanding descents). The US-American held at 655 points, pursuer Renate Götschl as fifth in this race held at 368, which could not be made up with two races left. The fact that the descent, which was also planned on the "Stelvio" this time, was not driven despite a training session that had already taken place on March 10th, was only of importance for the overall World Cup. For the moment, this was considered a small advantage for Hosp interpreted their last chance, since Vonn would have missed a sure rich increase in points.
Super-G:
After Maria Riesch had already won the super combination in chronological order, she was able to win her second "ball" in 6th place in the final; Rival Elisabeth Görgl finished fifth; she started the race with number 19, one starting number behind Riesch, her target would have been second - with Riesch finishing sixth.
Giant slalom:
Even before the final, in which she was eighth, “season dominator” Denise Karbon was the overall winner with 560 points against Elisabeth Görgl's 379, as the competition planned for March 2nd in Zwiesel had been canceled.
Slalom:
It was practically an Austrian duel with a small chance for Tanja Poutiainen , in which there was a close race for a long time: Schild was only able to take the lead with second place in the Zagreb night slalom (Hosp dropped out as second in the first run) - And since Zwiesel did not take place, this meant a lead of 75 points over the rival from her own country before the final, which ultimately gave her no chance as defending champion (and this time with strong nerves) due to her victory (already after the 1st round) . Poutiainen only came in 8th and fell back to fourth place in the discipline ranking.
Super combination:
Maria Riesch's overall success meant the first small ball for the German Ski Association since Hilde Gerg (Super-G 2001/02).
Nations Cup
An overall balance sheet for the Swiss Ski Association showed that only once in the last twelve years, namely in 2001/02 with 6,334 points, had it done as well as now, all this also in view of the worst season of all time, which was the total lack of victory (with an additional »zero number« at the World Championships in Bormio) three years ago.
Worth mentioning
- The World Ski Association had already installed a new race director in the form of Swiss Hans Pieren on March 19, who succeeded the South Tyrolean Sepp Messner, who had been active for 18 years. Pieren had already worked in a similar position in 2006/07, but still without race director status, for the women under Atle Skårdal.
- The German Ski Association let the men's head coach Werner Margreiter expire after the 2006/07 season , who came to the DSV four years ago, but was unable to meet the high expectations. Christian Scholz became his successor on March 29th.
- There had also been a change at the Swiss Association: The so-called “Kombi-Gruppe-Ladies-Trainer” Fritz Züger , only brought back to “swiss-ski” since 2005, resigned on March 16
- New for the season was that the "Top 7" of the world rankings between the numbers 16 and 22 were drawn in the speed competitions.
- Bode Miller , who had declared in May that he would like to go his own way in the future , was missing from the list published by the US Ski Association on June 19, 2007 for the upcoming World Cup season, which included 27 names .
- On June 20, 2007 it was announced that Hermann Maier (after eleven years in the World Cup, i.e. 227 starts and 53 wins), made a change of material for the first time in his career and, as expected, went to "Head" (only the question of shoes was not yet available at this point) fixed).
- The previous US runner Lindsey Kildow went into the new season as Lindsey Vonn after her marriage to Thomas Vonn on June 29, 2007 .
- The women's downhill on December 8th in Aspen brought a surprising result, because of the aces only No. 17 Vonn, No. 21 Götschl and No. 23 Martina Schild were in front; After the heavy fall of No. 13 Alexandra Meissnitzer (torn patellar tendon, bruises in the shinbone head), the ÖSV runners Hosp, Holaus, Sponring and Schmidhofer had given up - and after the fall of No. 37 Anne-Sophie Barthet , the race was canceled.
- Ted Ligety, who had been drawn with no. 8, had to start in the first run of the giant slalom in Alta Badia on December 16 based on the decision of FIS Race Director Günter Hujara as forty-sixth (appearing too late at the start number draw), and came in 10th and middle ultimately to fifth place in the final ranking.
- Jean-Baptiste Grange managed to improve his rank enormously in his victory in the super combined in Wengen on January 11th, because after the descent he was only 27th, 2.68 s behind Didier Cuche ; however, Cuche (like the second placed Marco Büchel and the tenth Hermann Maier) did not start in the slalom. - One day later, Grange was also able to win the Lauberhorn Slalom, which meant Jean-Noël Augert's first French slalom victory in this traditional race since January 23, 1972 .
- On January 13th, Bode Miller set the mark of the best US runner Phil Mahre with 27 victories with his downhill win in Wengen .
- At the Super-G in Kitzbühel on January 18, Marco Büchel surpassed his own age record of November 25, 2006 (downhill Lake Louise) with a win of 36 years, 2 months and 14 days.
- Renate Götschl was the best Austrian on the downhill run in Cortina d'Ampezzo on January 19 , but “only” in 5th place and therefore not on the podium for the first time since 1999; On January 22nd, the second Super-G planned for January 18th was made up for, in which Götschl came in 3rd place (1/100 s compared to fourth Lindsey Vonn) to her 22nd podium in the famous Italian ski resort.
- At night slalom in Schladming fixed Mario Matt the 700th World Cup victory for the Austrian Ski Federation Men.
- At the men's downhill run in Chamonix , of all people, slalom skier Rainer Schönfelder , who had start no. 33 had started the race, with 4th place, preventing the heaviest downhill defeat for the Austrians since December 12, 1998 (when Norbert Holzknecht was 15th in Val-d'Isère ), because Klaus Kröll was 9th at the time.
- Denise Karbon was able to win the women's giant slalom on January 26th in Ofterschwang despite her disability (she broke the thumb of her right hand while skiing in Val di Fassa on January 23rd). For the first time after her injury break María José Rienda (María José Rienda-Contreras) was back, but she could not qualify for the second run in 57th place.
- With the victory in the super combined in Chamonix on January 27th, Bode Miller celebrated his 29th World Cup victory and caught up with Stephan Eberharter .
- The women's downhill run in St. Moritz on February 2nd was quite turbulent , where Tina Maze won with No. 47 (the highest winner number of a women's downhill run as of January 21, 2018). Maria Holaus seemed to have survived all the attacks of the competition for the time being: Lindsey Vonn was ahead with an “unbelievable” 1.21 s in the second of 3 measurements, but was 0.08 behind at the finish (which at the moment is still ex-aequo rank 3 meant); then it was 16-year-old Lara Gut who, with N ° 32, was so ahead in all intermediate times on her first World Cup descent that she could have been in position 1 (probably, seen in retrospect, would have been faster than Maze too ), but she fell just short of the finish line and, lying on her back with a ski on her leg, crossed the finish line, 0.01 backlog.
- In the super combination in Val-d'Isère on February 3, with another Miller victory, it was the first time in World Cup history that two Croatians came on the podium ( Ivica Kostelić and Natko Zrnčić-Dim ).
- While the women's slalom in Zagreb on February 15 was a night slalom (starting times 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.), the men's slalom on February 17 at 10.15 a.m. and 1.15 p.m. respectively. The curious thing about the men was that a member of the organizing committee had informed the course setter of the second run, Wolfgang Erharter (an Austrian in the service of the Canadian team), that he had scored three goals too few; So Erharter built in these missing gates in the finish section, and afterwards it turned out that the number of goals set would have been correct and the organizing committee had miscounted. - The victory by Mario Matt was achieved for the first time on a hole ski from the Fischer ski factory (this brought back memories of the 1976 Olympic Downhill, when Franz Klammer should have used such a ski, but he stayed with his usual model) .
- Nadia Styger's victory in the women's downhill on February 22nd in Whistler was the Swiss women's first downhill success since March 2nd, 2002 ( Corinne Rey-Bellet in Lenzerheide ).
- Maria Riesch's victory in the super combined from Whistler on February 24 was the first super combined victory for Germany.
- With the victory in the super combined in Crans-Montana on March 6th, Anja Pärson advanced to the fourth runner (after Petra Kronberger , Pernilla Wiberg and Janica Kostelić ) with victories in all current disciplines.
- There was a surprise in the slalom in Kranjska Gora on March 9th, when the current junior world champion Marcel Hirscher , whose start number 31 was therefore also outside of all favorites, was third 0.49 s behind.
Cancellations, postponements
- The women's and men's slaloms planned for Levi had to be canceled and took place on the Reiteralm , whereby the men's victory with Marc Gini brought a victory for Switzerland, which was the last for this nation until December 22, 2018 and the victory of Daniel Yule depicted.
- At the Lauberhorn races, the descent was swapped for the slalom due to the weather and snow conditions. H. on January 12th, instead of the downhill run, the slalom was driven and only on Sunday, January 13th, the downhill run.
- The men's downhill run in Val d'Isère on the Face de Bellevarde planned for February 2 had to be canceled after too much fresh snow; it was added on February 29 in Kvitfjell .
- The women's competitions in Zwiesel had to be canceled without replacement: For the time being, the program was reversed because of the expected storm "Emma", the slalom was scheduled for March 1st and the giant slalom for March 2nd - but "Emma" was so violent that on March 1st. March no race was possible; so the "giant" was canceled without replacement, the slalom was supposed to take place on March 2nd, but the storms never stopped.
- The final competitions in Bormio began with the cancellation of the downhill runs on March 12th (snowfall on March 11th did not allow the men to train; the women had already trained on March 10th; they should also have ridden on the Stelvio ).
Injuries
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Aksel Lund Svindal suffered a broken nose and cheekbones and cuts on his training fall in Beaver Creek on November 27th .
- Alexandra Meissnitzer's injury on December 8th has already been reported under the section "Noteworthy".
- When Johann Grugger a serious injury in his left knee was diagnosed on December 28 and he was operated on at a private clinic in Hochrum; he sustained an anterior cruciate ligament tear, a meniscus tear and a cartilage injury (probably during training in Lake Louise after a severe fall). - On April 5, 2007, he had already ruptured a cruciate ligament in Saalbach-Hinterglemm during ski tests at his equipment company; he had been operated on the same day at the UKH Schwarzach im Pongau and was faced with a break of around 6 months.
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Christine Sponring suffered a torn muscle fiber in her right knee on January 10th and had to take a break.
- The Kitzbühel downhill run on January 19 was overshadowed by Scott Macartney's serious fall , who made a mistake with N ° 02 at the target jump, fell sideways, lost his helmet on the second impact, and then was unconscious. He still slipped to the goal. After the first aid, he was flown to the Kitzbühel hospital in the ÖAMTC helicopter, then to the neurology department at the Innsbruck University Clinic, where he was put into an artificial deep sleep; internal traumatic brain injury was diagnosed; In the end, Macartney had what is known as "lucky in misfortune" and was approachable again the next day.
- In the Super-G in Sestrière on February 10, Maria Holaus had a hard crash (after a driving mistake); the Tyrolean was briefly passed out and was flown to the hospital in Turin ; the diagnosis was concussion and right collateral ligament tear.
- On February 28th, Stephan Keppler fell while training in Kvitfjell and tore a cruciate ligament (front left); on March 1st he was operated on in Munich ; the prognoses were that if the healing process was favorable, he would have to take a break of half a year.
- The Super-G on March 2nd in Kvitfjell meant the end of his career for Matthias Lanzinger from Salzburg , who ultimately died on March 4th after his serious fall, in which he suffered a slight concussion and an open tibia fracture on the left and severe vascular injuries Oslo by Dr. Lars Engebretsen the left lower leg had to be amputated. Above all, questions arose about the best possible first aid, especially with regard to rescue helicopters. Lanzinger was first brought to the clinic in Lillehammer , but there were no prerequisites for a vascular operation. So it took a total of 5½ hours until he landed at the operating table in the Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo.
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Mario Scheiber fell on March 6th during giant slalom training in Maria Alm and suffered a shoulder dislocation with bone splintering as well as a capsule injury and was operated on the same day in the hospital in Salzburg by Herbert Resch, which was the season for Scheiber; the examination at the hospital also revealed an injury to the knee.
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Tina Weirather suffered another serious knee injury; she tore the cruciate ligament in her right knee during the giant slalom training in Pitztal and was given a treatment by Dr. Christian Schenk operates; there was talk of a break of at least six months.
Resignations
- At a press conference in Annecy , Olympic champion Antoine Dénériaz announced his resignation on December 5th.
- For Alexandra Meissnitzer , the Super-G in the final in Bormio, where she was able to achieve a great personal result with third place, was over.
Web links
- World Cup men
- World Cup women
Bode Miller
Didier Cuche
Hannes Reichelt
Maria Riesch
Denise Karbon
Jan Hudec
Andrei Jerman
Aksel Lund Svindal
Marco Büchel
Kalle Palander
Cyprien Richard
Jens Byggmark
Ivica Kostelić
Ondřej Bank
Veronika Zuzulová
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