The 2008/09 season of the Alpine Ski World Cup organized by the FIS began on October 25, 2008 in Sölden and ended on March 15, 2009 on the occasion of the World Cup final in Åre .
36 races were planned for the men (9 downhill runs , 6 super-G , 8 giant slaloms , 10 slaloms , 3 super combinations ); there was also a classic combination rating. A Super-G could not be held. For the women, 35 races (8 downhill runs, 7 super-G, 8 giant slaloms, 9 slaloms, 3 super combinations) should be held. One departure was canceled without replacement. The season ended with a team competition .
The overall men's World Cup was decided in the last race, the slalom in Åre: Benjamin Raich was two points behind Aksel Lund Svindal before the race and should only have been faster than the Norwegian in the final slalom and should have finished in the top 15 if Svindal would have been classified at least 2 places behind him, or under the top nine if Svindal had landed directly behind him. However, since Raich already retired in the first run with start number 1, Svindal was certain from that moment as the World Cup winner: Since he also retired in the first run, the extremely narrow lead of 2 points remained; the second had achieved 99.80% of the points of the winner.
The highlight of the season was the World Ski Championships , which took place from February 3 to 15, 2009 in Val-d'Isère , France .
World Cup ratings
total
Departure
Super G
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
Nations Cup
Season course
World Cup decisions
Men's
Overall:
Benjamin Raich and Ivica Kostelić entered the finals with 837 points each, ahead of Svindal (829), Grange (777), Cuche (763); Janka (659), Défago (658), Walchhofer (611), Kröll (537) and Miller (517) also had theoretical chances.
Downhill:
Before the final the victory of an ÖSV runner was already certain: Klaus Kröll appeared with 395 points, 75 points behind Michael Walchhofer ; Kröll was with start no. 16 started the race and beat the finish line with the sixth time, which would have only brought him 40 points - in the end it was only 9th; so it was irrelevant that Walchhofer (who had only started with number 20) was canceled.
Super-G:
With his victory in the final, Werner Heel came in second; Hermann Maier was ahead of the same with 231 ahead of Svindal (212) and Défago (210) - but Maier remained in 17th place without any points, Défago finished 8th.
Giant slalom:
A preliminary decision in favor of Didier Cuche , who had already celebrated his first victory in this discipline in 7 years in Sestriere (January 5, 2002 in Adelboden ) and caught up with 40 points to Benjamin Raich, was made in the penultimate race in Kranjska Gora (February 28), when the Swiss came second, while Raich fell back from intermediate rank 4 to final rank 15 and was therefore overtaken by Cuche with 414 against 362 points. - Raich was able to win the “final” in Åre, but with 3rd place Cuche could not be taken away from the lead, despite the mishap of losing a stick in the first run.
Slalom:
Jean-Baptiste Grange was ahead of the final with 481 points ahead of Ivica Kostelić with 432; Manfred Pranger still had a mini-chance with 389 points. While the Frenchman, who set the fastest time in the second run, advanced to third place, Pranger finished tenth and Kostelić twelfth (although they were already clearly behind after the first run and were practically beaten).
Combination:
As in previous years, this decision was made first during the season. Before the last race in Sestriere, Zurbriggen was 23 and 69 points ahead of Janka and Raich; The latter, however, had already awarded 14th place in the Super-G in view of his theoretical chances and finished in 9th place. With 3rd place compared to Zurbriggen in 10th place, Janka overtook his team mate.
Ladies
Overall:
Vonn approached the overall profit with giant strides, after the races in Bansko she was with 1,456 points ahead of Riesch with 1,120, the runners-up, Pärson (960) and Zettel (885) would have practically needed victories to maintain their mini-chances; but before the final Vonn was leading with 1,588 points ahead of Riesch with 1,219; for Pärson (990) and Zettel (985) there was nothing left to get.
Downhill:
Already after the second downhill in Bansko, in which Lindsey Vonn had finished 12th after an unusually weak performance (thus not on a downhill podium for the first time this season), this was sufficient, with now 402 points an increase of 111 points Dominique Gisin (291 points) to show and to go into the final unassailable.
Super-G:
After Lindsey Vonn had not achieved the “Big Points” in the first races (9th place in Lake Louise, retired in St. Moritz, 8th place in Cortina d'Ampezzo), she won the remaining four. Already after Tarvisio (February 22nd) she had reached the top (Nadia Fanchini 300, Suter 296) with 3rd place and 261 points. At this point in time, however, there was still a long line of runners who had a say in the championship victory, above all: Lindell-Vikarby 216, Pärson 180, Dettling 165 and Gut 151. At the end of the season Vonn was still quite clear about them Secure overall ranking, although this was only fixed in the final, before which Fabienne Suter had led with 376 points ahead of her (361) and N. Fanchini (336).
Giant slalom:
With second place in the final, Tanja Poutiainen , who was second behind Tina Maze after the first run, was able to make up 48 points against Kathrin Zettel (11th place in the first run, ultimately 8th place) and just overtake the Lower Austrian.
Slalom:
Maria Riesch was consistently ahead from the races on Semmering; after the “between-holiday event” in Lower Austria, she led with 300 points ahead of Vonn 290, Záhrobská 224, Poutiainen 220, Hosp 195 and Zettel 155; after Garmisch-Partenkirchen it was 580 points. Vonn was at 440 (which she stayed with), so Záhrobská (349) passed her. The other places were Poutiainen with 345, Zettel with 280 and Pärson with 219.
Combination:
As with the men, the first "small ball" was awarded here - Anja Pärson entered the final race in Tarvisio with 160 points ahead of Kathrin Zettel (102) and Lindsey Vonn (100) - 5th place, which she also followed the downhill was enough for the Swede (slalom: 8th place), even though her competitors also came out on top in both sub-competitions.
Premier victories
Men's:
- On the descent from Lake Louise (November 29th) Peter Fill had his first success. But he had to start no. 65 ( Carlo Janka , who was quite unknown at the time , had an intermediate time that was 0.08 s better).
Hans Olsson was the first Swede in the history of World Cup downhill runs to take third place (so far, Fredrik Nyberg had been the record holder with fifth place in Vail on December 1, 1995).
- Only a short time after the aforementioned second place on the downhill in Vail, Carlo Janka achieved his first victory in the giant slalom in Val-d'Isère (December 13th).
- Start no. 1 brought Christof Innerhofer his first World Cup success on the descent in Bormio on December 28th.
- Ironically, Klaus Kroell (93 races without a win, a total so far of four rankings in the "Top 3", in addition with a broken bone in his right hand) the heaviest prevented on 23 January with the surprise victory in the Super G in Kitzbuehel Austrian Ski Federation Men's defeat in this Discipline ( Hermann Maier just in 11th place) since March 3rd 1985 in Furano (12th place for Rudi Huber).
- Kitzbühel: The slalom and the combination decision brought about the maiden victory for the respective winner: Julien Lizeroux , who was “only” seventh after the first run , even achieved a French double victory, Silvan Zurbriggen won the “golden chamois” for the combination.
- In the super-combined in Sestriere came Romed Baumann for his first success; He laid the foundation for this in the first part of this competition when he won the Super-G.
- In the downhill on March 6 in Kvitfjell came Manuel Osborne-Paradis success World Cup for his first.
Women:
- For Tessa Worley , in her only 12th World Cup start, the giant slalom in Aspen (November 29th), which was accompanied by two serious falls , she already had her first victory (as sixth after the first run, however, she benefited from a serious mistake by Denise Karbon, who had made a great effort ) . Worley also put an end to a long period of no victory for the French women's team, because Ingrid Jacquemod was last successful on January 7th, 2005 in the 2nd descent from Santa Caterina , Régine Cavagnoud had a "huge" victory on November 19, 1999 in the US - American Copper Mountain celebrated.
- The reigning slalom world champion Šárka Záhrobská was able to win her first World Cup victory at the slalom in Aspen (November 30th), which was also the first World Cup victory for the Czech Republic, because the previous victories were still under "ČSSR".
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Nadia Fanchini took her first victory in the Super-G of Lake Louise on December 7th.
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Lara Gut achieved her first victory on December 20th at the Super-G in St. Moritz in her 14th World Cup race (she made optimal use of the start number 1, which was cheap on that day, after which the conditions deteriorated noticeably) and became at the same time also the youngest winner (also at the current time, January 2019) in this discipline.
- Dominique Gisin's ex-aequo victory with Anja Pärson on January 18 at the downhill run in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee was the Swiss woman's first victory (for Pärson it was also victory number 40).
- At the Super-G on January 26th in Cortina d'Ampezzo there were several premieres, first of all the first victory for Jessica Lindell-Vikarby ; It was the first podium for both Anna Fenninger and Andrea Dettling .
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Gina Stechert , which had only reached on December 5 ranked 4th in the departure of Lake Louise her best career result (previously it had only two "top ten" results given), took in the downhill in February 21 Tarvisio with Start no. 5 their first and only World Cup victory; And this with a minimal lead of 0.01 s on Lindsey Vonn, who wore the No. 17.
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Sandrine Aubert gained momentum towards the end of the season when she won her first World Cup race in the slalom in Ofterschwang on March 7th and doubled in the final in Åre a week later (March 13th) .
As far as Ofterschwang is concerned, Frida Hansdotter achieved the first World Cup podium with second place.
Incidents
- With her victory in the slalom (two fastest times) in Levi (November 15), Lindsey Vonn came a little closer to the goal of winning in all current disciplines. However, she still had to wait until the 2011/12 season opener before she achieved this goal by winning the giant slalom in Sölden .
- Many failures in the last season had caused Bode Miller to fall far behind in the slalom world rankings, so that at the first slalom of the season in Levi (November 16) he only had start number. 31 was allowed to compete, but mastered this brilliantly with final rank 2 (already after the 1st round on rank 3).
- Hermann Maier won his 54th and last victory in a World Cup race on November 30th at the Super-G in Lake Louise , which is also his fourth victory here after 1999, 2000 and 2003 and the first victory in a World Cup race since 1,037 Days (departure Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 28, 2006).
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Gauthier de Tessières achieved an enormous improvement in rank from 30th to 3rd place in the giant slalom in Val d'Isère on December 13th.
- At the slalom in La Molina (December 14th), which Maria Riesch won with two fastest times and a lead of 1.48 seconds, the Swiss women suffered a heavy defeat with Sandra Gini in 23rd place (these were her first World Cup points) Seasons 2005/06 and 2006/07 remembered.
- The National Olympic Committee [Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano / CONI] banned Mirko Deflorian for doping for 18 months on December 16 , although the Italian Ski Association (FISI) had previously acquitted him. The runner had given a positive doping test (cocaine) on February 19, 2008 on the occasion of the national junior championships in Pozza di Fassa .
- At the Super-G in Val Gardena (December 19), in which almost all aces were “blown” by squalls ( Michael Walchhofer only in 40th place), Patrik Jrebsyn was the oldest runner who ever stood on the podium in a World Cup race.
- Thanks to Daniel Albrecht , the “swiss-ski” team landed another victory in the giant slalom in Alta Badia on December 21, after 10 years (previously Michael von Grünigen on December 20, 1998).
- Lara Gut was able to work her way up from 15th to 3rd place in the giant slalom on Semmering (December 28th) with the fastest time in the second run, which was also the first giant slalom podium for the Swiss women's team since Sonja Nef's victory on January 4th, 2003 in Bormio meant.
- On December 30th, the former ski star Alberto Tomba published a biography entitled “Prima e seconda Manche” (“First and Second Run”).
- With his third victory in an Adelboden giant slalom (January 10th), Benjamin Raich achieved World Cup victory no. 400 for the men's team of the ÖSV. Kjetil Jansrud in third place achieved his first podium, Sandro Viletta was able to work his way up from 25th to 4th with the fastest time.
- At the slalom in Adelboden on January 11th, in which the winner Reinfried Herbst was only 10th after the first run ( Felix Neureuther came from 15 to 3), none of the Swiss federation's runners made it into the ranking, you can see from the one starting for Moldova Urs Imboden on rank 27 (Marc Gini had missed the "cut" of the first 30 by a hundredth of a second).
- With four slalom successes in a row, Maria Riesch set the DSV record in women's slalom with her victory on January 11th in Maribor ; Only Christa Zechmeister (1973/74) had 4 slalom successes in a row . Christa Kinshofer remained the German record holder , albeit in the giant slalom, when she had five World Cup victories in a row in the 1978/79 season.
- Austria's men's downhill team suffered on January 17th at the Lauberhorn downhill run with 18th place for Georg Streitberger, the biggest defeat since March 5th, 1994, when Patrick Ortlieb was also 18th in Aspen.
- The ÖSV women also experienced, on January 24th at the downhill run in Cortina d'Ampezzo, a bad result for Ingrid Rumpfhuber with rank 12 ; on December 10, 1994 in Lake Louise there were only ranks 16 and 17 for Alexandra Meissnitzer and Michaela Dorfmeister .
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Didier Défago was the first Swiss since Franz Heinzer in January 1992, who won the downhill run on both the Lauberhorn and the Hahnenkamm in the same year.
- The women of the ÖSV had to accept another “minus result”; at the slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 27, there was her worst result (24th place for Alexandra Daum ) since November 23, 1997 in Park City , when none at all made it into the rankings. This time there was even a double lead ( Kathrin Zettel ahead of Michaela Kirchgasser ), but both were eliminated in the second run.
- With her victory at the Super-G in Tarvisio (February 22nd), Lindsey Vonn became the most successful US runner in Alpine World Cup history. So far she had to share this title with Tamara McKinney (9 wins each in slalom and giant slalom).
- With the women's speed races on the technically demanding Banderitzapiste in Bansko (February 27/28 and March 1), the World Cup returned to Bulgaria for the first time in 25 years (then, February 4/5, 1984, a men's slalom and giant slalom in Borovets ). With her victory in the "Original Downhill" on February 28, Andrea Fischbacher was also able to win a World Cup downhill run for the ÖSV women for the first time in 717 days ( Renate Götschl on March 14, 2007 in Lenzerheide ).
- Her first and only podium in the World Cup was achieved by Fanny Chmelar with second place in the final slalom in Åre (March 13th), with start no. 19 did not belong to the group of top runners (she missed the win by 0.06 s).
Cancel
Both the men's super combination in Beaver Creek (December 4th) and the women's downhill run in Lake Louise (December 6th) had to be canceled (or postponed) due to excessive amounts of fresh snow. In the latter case, the start scheduled for 8.30 p.m. CET had been postponed three times by half an hour before FIS Race Director Atle Skårdal had to draw the line at 10 p.m. CET.
Injuries
Men's:
- On November 28, François Bourque tore his anterior cruciate ligament in preparation for the final training session for the World Cup downhill in Lake Louise, which meant that he was out for the rest of the alpine ski season.
- On January 8th, Rainer Schönfelder announced due to all his health and injury-related problems that he would no longer start the current season or take a break for an indefinite period; he had suffered a lower leg injury in Sölden (damage to the nerve tissue around the edge of the ski boot). On the same day, Hans Grugger also had to postpone his comeback plans because he sustained a cruciate ligament and meniscus injury in his right knee while training for the European Cup downhill run in Wengen.
- For Dominik Stehle , the alpine skiing winter ended prematurely on January 16, when he suffered a cruciate ligament rupture and a bone sprain in the head of his left leg in a fall at the European Cup slalom in Oberjoch .
- During training for the Hahnenkamm descent on January 22nd, Daniel Albrecht had a hard fall on the finish line; he suffered a traumatic brain injury (cerebral hemorrhage, compressed lungs) and fell into a coma.
Women:
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Marlies Schild had to end the season before the start of the season, because she had a hard fall in giant slalom training on the Rettenbachferner on October 9 and suffered a fracture in her shin and fibula as well as a fracture of the head of the tibia in her left leg.
- For two runners, falls in the giant slalom in Aspen (November 29) meant the end of the season: Chiara Costazza and María José Rienda the season was over. Costazza suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in his left foot, Rienda suffered a cruciate ligament tear in his left knee, after a barely made comeback; only 2 years ago, on November 19, 2006, the Iberian had already suffered a cruciate ligament and inner ligament tear in her right knee in a training fall in Colorado .
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Nicole Hosp fell on January 4th while running in before the slalom in Zagreb and tore the collateral ligament in her left knee. In addition, the head of the tibia was broken and the anterior cruciate ligament torn. But she managed to return at the end of the season, with a strong "comeback" in the slalom in Ofterschwang (March 7th) with 3rd place.
- Another ÖSV runner was affected with Michaela Kirchgasser. She fell on February 19 during downhill training in Tarvisio, where she suffered a cartilage impression fracture on her left thigh and a tear in the meniscus, which marked the end of the season for her.
Return of injuries
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After a one-year break (cruciate ligament tear), Silvan Zurbriggen celebrated an impressive comeback with fourth place in the slalom in Levi (November 16), where he was able to improve from 21st place by 17 places.
- What the media described as a “fairy tale” result was achieved by Aksel Lund Svindal , who was accurate on the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek , where he had been seriously injured the year before, with victories in both downhill and Super-G on 5th / 6th December.
End of career
Race outside the World Cup
A special feature was a "Show Parallel Slalom" on New Year's Day in Moscow (16 participants, thus in a certain sense a predecessor of the "City Events"), which Felix Neureuther won ahead of Jean-Baptiste Grange and Bode Miller, for which checks ( Checks) for $ 30,000, $ 20,000, and $ 10,000; But even Didier Cuche was the only Swiss driver to receive a $ 10,000 inaugural bonus (although he was eliminated in the first round by Mario Matt ).
Web links
- World Cup men
- World Cup women
Individual evidence
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↑ Marlies Schild seriously injured. derStandard.at , October 9, 2008, accessed on July 19, 2020 .
Aksel Lund Svindal
Lindsey Vonn
Michael Walchhofer
Didier Cuche
Tanja Poutiainen
Jean-B. Grange
Maria Riesch
Anja Pärson
Peter Fill
Marco Büchel
Erik Guay
Ivica Kostelić
Tina Maze
Šárka Záhrobská
