VRHOVNIK Matjas (SLO)
06.05.1972 Ljubljana
185cm / 89kg
SKI: Atomic
BOOTS:Lange
BINDING: Atomic

2003/retired
KranjskaGora00 SL Kitzbuhel00 SL
Kranjska Gora 00 SL Kitzbuhel 00 SL
VrhovnikFace World Cup Ranking
General
1995/110th, 1996/78th, 1997/-, 1998/91st, 1999/89th, 2000/17th, 2001/44th, 2002/138th.
Special
2000 SL/3rd,
World Championship
1997 Sestriere SL/22nd
Olympic Games
1998 Nagano SL/17th
World Cup
1. SL: Adelboden 2000,
2. SL: Kitzbuhel 2000,
3. SL: Chamonix 2000, Bormio 2000
4. SL: Wengen 2000,
5. SL: Tidtnau 2000,
6. SL: Madonna 2000, Kranjska Gora 2000,
Slovenia's Matjaz Vrhovnik was rewarded for his consistency in slalom this season with the first World Cup win of his career in Sunday's slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland. Before this season, the skier from Ljubljana never reached the top-10 in a World Cup race.

The 27-year-old Slovene, who placed in the top-10 in every slalom race this season, beat the best gate skier of the season, Norway's Kjetil Aamodt, by only 21/100 of a second. Aamodt, still fighting for the Overall title against Austria's Hermann Maier, reached his fifth slalom podium of the season today. He still holds the lead in the slalom World Cup standings by 49 points but with three more slalom races to go, he will have to fight until the end to win his first Crystal Globe since 1994.

With his victory, Vrhovnik became the sixth skier in eight races, and fifth in a row, to have celebrated his first World Cup victory in slalom this season. Norway's Finn Christian Jagge, who straddled a gate in the second run after a strong performance in the first one, is the only veteran to have won a slalom this winter, in Italy's Madonna di Campiglio.

The introduction of the new and shorter carving slalom skis has totally revolutionized this alpine discipline. Vrhovnik was aiming for the first major success in his career since finishing 3rd in Chamonix in January. A member of the national team for eight years, he had enough experience and momentum to achieve an excellent second run today and stayed ahead of Aamodt, after beating him in the first run by almost half a second.
"I can't believe it, I have been fighting so hard and so long for this," Vrhovnik said after the race. "The conditions were really difficult because of the bad weather and the course was quite demanding, especially in the last steep section.
"I had a great series of good results before coming here and I was ready to take a lot of risks to win a race. I was only 50th in the international ranking at the start of the season and now I'm fighting for the slalom Cup. It's incredible. I'm really lucky to have tested the new short skis last spring. They totally changed my attitude. I felt from the beginning that I could compete with the best and I gained confidence race after race. I have also worked a lot on my mental approach. I'm more focused and stronger, too, in my mind."
Biorama Basel