Super G

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Racing driver in the super giant slalom

The Super-G (short for English. "Super Giant Slalom", dt. Super giant slalom ) is a discipline in alpine skiing and grass skiing .

Alpine skiing

The Super-G is the second fastest discipline in alpine skiing after the descent . The route is shorter than on the descent, but technically more demanding. There are many more goals, which are also set closer together.

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The difference in altitude in the men's Super G races in the World Cup, Continental Cups, World Championships and Olympic Games is at least 500 m and at most 650 m, for women at least 400 m and at most 600 m. At least 35 or 30 goals must be set, the width of which must be at least six meters and a maximum of eight meters for open and at least eight meters and a maximum of twelve meters for vertical goals and the minimum distance must be 25 m. In contrast to the descent, there are no training runs; the runners can visit the track on race day, but not drive it. The Super-G is held in a single run.

For the 2003/04 season, the World Federation FIS set minimum lengths for the skis in Super G races for the first time.

history

The Super-G was introduced by the FIS in order to be able to offer an additional speed discipline on the one hand and to steer the giant slalom back to a narrower course of the gates and thus in a more technically oriented direction on the other . For the time being, the competition was also called »RS1« and was also somewhat controversial. As "rehearsals" there was a Super-G in La Villa on December 10, 1981, which was not part of the World Cup and on November 24, 1982 as part of the World Series of Skiing in Bormio , which was only part of the Nations Cup , each time with a victory for Pirmin Zurbriggen .

The first World Cup race in the new discipline was whether the weather problems postponed by one day, on 12 December 1982 in Val d'Isere in the presence of World Cup founder Serge Lang and Marielle Goitschel and Jean-Claude Killy instead. The winner was the Swiss Peter Müller . Both Phil Mahre and Ingemar Stenmark were missing at the start . The women followed on January 9, 1983 in Verbier with Irene Epple as the winner.

With regard to the starting groups, the World Ski Association was moving into uncharted territory, similar to the International Tennis Federation in 1968 and 1973 , when the Open Era began and the ATP ranking was introduced. On the one hand, the first starting numbers were recruited from runners from the giant slalom ( Ingemar Stenmark wore No. 5 on his debut in Madonna di Campiglio ) and in the first two years the World Cup points gained were included in the giant slalom ranking; on the other hand, a higher number of drivers per association was allowed to compete (Switzerland posted 17 on December 12, 1982), probably to give both downhill and giant slalom runners a chance. From race to race, specific FIS point lists developed, so that the usual quotas per nation also came into play here.

While the traditional skiing nations Austria Men by Hans Enn already in the second World Cup competition ranked 2nd first podium and in the fourth (on 10 December 1983 in Val d'Isere), the first win was, the ladies needed something more. It was true that Elisabeth Kirchler made the first "podium" in the fourth race (on March 4, 1984 in Mont Sainte-Anne with rank 2) , but it was not until November 29, 1987 that Sigrid Wolf was able to take part in the 19th World Cup in Sestriere. Super-G win a victory for the first time. In contrast to their male colleagues, the Swiss women also needed a little longer, and Michela Figini scored their first victory in Pfronten on January 13, 1985 . The best start for the women was for Germany ; Up to and including 1986/87 9 victories could be achieved - with a total of 18 races - and they stayed in the front until 2004/05, when they each had 38 victories with Austria . With 42 wins, the DSV representatives are also in second place after 2015/16 (Austria: 55; for comparison: USA 31, Switzerland 28, France 23). In the men's area it was a little different: With 19 wins, Switzerland was clearly ahead of Germany (6) and Austria (4) after 1991/92, but for nine years no victory could be added while Austria pulled away. Currently (after 2015/16) “Red-White-Red” leads with 73 wins, ahead of Switzerland (34) and Norway (33); Germany stuck to its six victories. However, there is a difference in the discipline scores: In the meantime, 32 "small balls" have been awarded to both women and men, with Germany's women taking away ten (followed by France and Austria with six each) - and Norway also took ten for men ( before Austria with eight).

The first world championship races took place in Crans-Montana in 1987 , won by Pirmin Zurbriggen and Maria Walliser . In the overall balance, Austria leads the men (after 14 championships) with four gold medals, ahead of Switzerland and Norway (three each); Also in the women’s category (where there was one more competition due to the cancellation of the men's Super-G in 1993) most gold medals went to Austria with six, followed by Italy and Sweden with two. Note: In 1999 there was the novelty of ex-aequo-Gold by Hermann Maier and Lasse Kjus .

The first Olympic champions in 1988 were Franck Piccard and Sigrid Wolf . Overall, in the eight Olympic Super-Gs for men, the Norwegians (also thanks to Kjetil André Aamodt with three golds) were on the top podium five times, the Austrian women were able to assert themselves four times.

Hermann Maier from Austria is the most successful Super-G driver of all time. He won 24 World Cup races, took the discipline rankings 5 ​​times and became World Champion and Olympic Champion. Another specialist was the Norwegian Kjetil André Aamodt . He managed to win Olympic gold in 1992 , 2002 and 2006 . In the women's world cup, Lindsey Vonn and Katja Seizinger each won the discipline classification five times, and Vonn won 28 races in the world cup.

Grass ski

The Super-G is the youngest and fastest discipline in grass skiing . It was first part of the world championship in 1987 . In contrast to slalom and giant slalom, the Super-G is decided in just one run. Downhill runs like those in alpine skiing are not held due to the lack of suitable slopes, but there are efforts to carry out so-called sprint runs. The difference in altitude on a Super-G slope is 120 to 180 meters for men (in exceptional cases a minimum of 100 meters) and 110 to 150 meters for women (in exceptional cases only 90 meters) at world championships and world cup races . For all other FIS competitions, the difference in altitude should be 90 to 150 meters. The number of changes in direction is about a tenth of the height difference, for example 10 changes in direction for a 100 meter height difference. The starting order is based on the FIS points. The 15 best-placed runners in the FIS ranking list will be given the top starting positions, all others will start in the order of their FIS points. Before the race there is a tour of the course.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ I. Epple's second victory . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . No. 285 . Vorwärts-Verlag, December 11, 1981, p. 8, below ( berufer-zeitung.at ).
  2. ↑ Rigging off Gaspoz . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . No. 273 . Vorwärts-Verlag, November 25, 1982, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at ).
  3. ↑ At a glance . Box. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . No. 283 . Vorwärts-Verlag, December 13, 1982, p. 8, right ( berufer-zeitung.at ).
  4. ^ Hans Etlinger: complaints . Gloss. In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . No. 287 . Vorwärts-Verlag, December 13, 1982, p. 9, left ( berufer-zeitung.at ).
  5. ↑ Hans Etlinger: The Swiss drove all away . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . No. 287 . Vorwärts-Verlag, December 13, 1982, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at ).

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