When the piste was first skied in 1969, it represented a new type of downhill run. Until then, the classic downhill routes were characterized by numerous bumps, holes, rocks and other obstacles and required a lot of courage, but also entailed an enormous risk. The Saslong, on the other hand, should challenge the skier's technique and, above all, be much safer.
The men's downhill run on the Saslong has been an integral part of the Alpine Ski World Cup since 1969. At the World Ski Championships in 1970 , Bernhard Russi was downhill world champion on this ski slope.
A special feature of the Saslong was the numerous good placements by outsiders with high starting numbers, for example the sensational victory of Liechtenstein's Markus Foser in 1993. The reason for this was that as the race progressed, the sun came out from behind the Sassolungo and, due to the sunshine, the upper part of the route was faster has been. By moving the start time, this advantage has been compensated for and roughly the same conditions have been created for all drivers.
Routing
After the starting slope, the slope leads over open terrain and above all demands the gliding abilities of the downhill skiers and the ski equipment. Then follows the steepest part of the route with the small wall . Immediately afterwards, there is a big jump over the great wall .
Approximately in the middle of the Saslong is one of the most prominent sections of the World Cup, the so-called camel hump . This combination, originally called the “jump of the kangaroo” , consists of three bumps. While the first hump was not a problem, the other two were consecutive and difficult to master jumps. There were early considerations to skip the third hump and thereby save time. The Austrian Uli Spieß dared the first jump of this kind in 1980 . With the exception of Marc Girardelli , who preferred a different line, this example was followed by most of the top downhill skiers over the years, with jumps of up to 70 m and an air level of around 10 m. Since there were always serious falls, the camel hump was defused over time by modifications, so that it is now less dangerous to jump over the third hump.
After the bumps, there is the Ciaslat meadow , a very demanding passage with four bends and numerous bumps . The last difficulty of the Saslong is the steep target slope, which was widened in 2007, with the target jump.
Target slope of the Saslong during the construction of the bypass road in summer 2008
winner
With seven World Cup victories (up to 2018) (five in Super-G , two in Downhill ), Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal is the most successful athlete on the Saslong. The record holders in the downhill are the Austrian Franz Klammer and the Italian Kristian Ghedina , who each won four times in this discipline. The Austrian Michael Walchhofer also achieved four victories (two in the Super-G, two in the downhill).
The most successful ski association in the history of the Val Gardena World Cup is that from Austria (21 wins), followed by Switzerland (19) and Norway (14).
Winner lists men
The following tables show the three winners of all World Cup races that have so far been held on the Saslong . Since the results of the 21st Alpine World Ski Championships in 1970 also counted towards the Alpine Ski World Cup 1969/70 , the result of the downhill run (February 15, 1970) is also given below. In 1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2001 there were two runs each.
Selva in Val Gardena
Edmund Bruggmann
Reinhard Tritscher
Aksel Lund Svindal
Steven Nyman
Rob Boyd
Antoine Dénériaz
