ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP 1997/98
Bormio (IRA) Men's 3rd Downhill. 29.Dec.1997
Hermann Maier Marks First Downhill Win

Bormio, Italy, December 29--It can't be a real surprise, yet it's quite an amazing performance that Hermann Maier was able to achieve today at Bormio, in northern Italy, in the third downhill of the season. The 25-year-old Austrian celebrated his third World Cup victory the season and his very first in downhill at the end of a very difficult competition.
The "Kolossal" athlete from Flachau,　south of Salzburg, beat by only 3/100 of a second his teammate Andreas Schifferer, the winner in the second downhill in Beaver Creek and by 20/100 Werner Franz. Another Austrian, Stefan Eberharter, finished 4th in front of Norway's Lasse Kjus, a winner here in 1995.
William Besse was the best Swiss skier in 7th place while France's Jean Luc Cretier was a rather disappointed 9th.His younger teammate Nicolas Burtin conquered a promising 12th place. The best Italian, Kristian Ghedina, was only 14th at 1.03 second from the winner. He will need to improve his form quickly if he wishes to remain a top contender for the downhill World Cup title this winter. America's AJ Kitt was a far 32nd at almost three seconds behind the winner. He finished just behind the best skier from Slovenia, Ales Brezavsek who scored his first World Cup points in downhill with his strong 27th position.
In the Overall World Cup standings, Hermann Maier leads now with 589 points in front of his teammate Stefan Eberharter (446 points) and Michael von Gruningen (390 points). He is also the leader in the downhill standings in front of Schifferer and Ghedina. He would also lead the giant slalom standings without the tough disqualification in Val d'Isere two weeks ago.
It's not a hazard that Maier's idol when he was a kid was Franz Klammer, the downhill "Kaiser" in the 70's. In many points the relaxed Hermann reminds the great Olympic Champion who dominated his event as nobody else before and after him in the history of the Alpine Ski World Cup. Maier too is an impressive natural talent who enjoys pushing his limits and who surprises the media by his genuine and cool answers after his wins. In the finish line in Bormio, he just couldn't explain his latest impressive accomplishment ,which put him in the elite circle of all-time superstars able to win in several specialties during the same winter.
In the last twenty years, only top athletes such as Switzerland's Pirmin Zurbriggen and Paul Accola, Marc Girardelli from Luxemburg as well as the Norwegian Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Aamodt were able to dominate their rivals in more than two disciplines. A winner in giant slalom in Park City and Val d'Isere (before his disqualification for having shown his skis too soon), Hermann also clinched a Super-G race in Beaver Creek a day after he came 2nd in the second World Cup downhill. Quite incredible results for a racer with so little international experience. This winter, Maier is only competing in his second full World Cup season after having worked as a ski instructor and a bricklayer until 1995.
"I didn't expect to ski so fast today," he said with a nice smile after his run. "It's a tough course and I planned to have a controlled run today to be more aggressive on Tuesday. I skied really well in the first part, but I had my problems in the final part, at the top of the last steep schuss. I was almost blind when I skied into the shadow and I have been lucky not to miss a gate. I was really lucky to be so fast".
Last year, I watched this race on TV, and I was really impressed by the difficulties of the course. I didn't think that I would be at the start here only a year later."
"Until few days ago I was thinking to take a break instead of competing here," he added. But, I changed my mind after it the FIS decided to have two downhills here and when I heard that the conditions were rather demanding. It's a great feeling to win my first downhill on such a difficult course. The snow was harder and faster than yesterday and you had to fight hard all the time to remain on the best line. You burn a lot of energy. I don't know how I will feel tomorrow, but for the moment, everything is perfect."
Even his own trainers shacked their head when they came to congratulate Maier. "He is really incredible, we all wonder how he can be so fast despite his lack of experience," said Austria's head coach Werner Margreiter. "He is setting is own rules. Obviously his strong physical shape and his determination help him to excel at that level. We didn't expect him to win here. Now we have to plan a good schedule for him in January. He must save some energy for the second part of the season and the Olympics."
Maier doesn't worry too much about his future. "Ski racing is my whole life, and I can't be happier than when I'm competing on the World Cup tour," he said at the press conference. "I have been fighting hard to reach this level in all these years when I had to give up international ski racing because of my health problems. I was always dreaming of a comeback while I was working as a ski instructor and a bricklayer at Flachau."
"Now," he added, "my only concern is to remain in healthy. I need to relax and to train whenever its possible to keep this winning form. I will try to take a break if I keep on skiing so well".
At Bormio, Maier conquered his seventh podium of the season and his streak should continue in the coming events. He is very motivated by the hope of winning the Overall World Cup almost 30years after the great Karl Schranz.
"It's a great goal now for our team," admitted Maier. "It's the greatest possible achievement for a skier since it's such a difficult target. You need to be so strong during an entire winter. You need more luck to win medals."
Teammates seem hopeful that Maier will achieve his goal. "You never know with him, he is really impressive," said Andreas Schifferer. "He is always charging, he only cares about speed. For sure he is an outstanding talent and he is so confident that he can take all risks. You need a great run to beat him on demanding courses. I made too many mistakes today to have a chance. I'll try harder tomorrow."
This is also the case for the Austrian team's rivals who had another tough day, but the task seems almost impossible. Since the season's start at Tignes, the Austrian have clinched an impressive total of seven races, excepting the controversial giant slalom loss in Val d'Isere.

Hermann Maier
Austria's Hermann Maier is having a great time this early in the season: after twice finishing 3rd in the parallel event and in the Giant Slalom at Tignes, the 25 year old champion from the region of Salzburg celebrated his first victory of the season in a Giant Slalom at Park City. It's quite a character who has been rushing on the white scene since February last.
Soon to be 25 (on Dec. 7th), Maier is not the youngest member of his squad, but for sure one of the most colorful. It is only his second season on the World Cup tour as well as in the national team. He just needed more time than his friends to achieve his potential. A promising junior skier, Hermann could not match the other Austrians when he grew up. He only weighed 50 kilos in those years, much less than his colleagues. He also had some problems with his knees so that he decided to give up racing to learn a job. He became a bricklayer and a ski instructor to help his parents who run a ski school at Flachau, one hour's drive south of Salzburg.
Working hard, he gained a lot of muscles and power while getting older. At 23, he again competed in the national championships and scored a top-3 result despite starting among the last skiers. Then, some good results enabled him to join the World Cup team in 1996.
He was 6th at Park City a year ago, in the race won by his teammate Josef Strobl. Two months later, he injured himself in the Downhill at Chamonix, which cost him a possible qualification for the World Championships at Sestriere. But he didn't loose his time during his forced rest and trained hard to be quickly back in shape. In fact, he won one of the first races after Sestriere, a Super-G at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He finished the season with an excellent 21st place in the Overall World Cup. This is now one of his goals: he feels able to fight for the victory and has worked hard to have a real chance to do so 28 years after the legendary Karl Schranz.
"Our team is so strong that each training runs like a real race " he said. "It is tough but also very helpful." Maier is also planning to score great results in the Super-G and the Downhill.
"As ski teacher or tourist, I had to ski in all kinds of conditions in the past years, so I have no problem handling bad weather or difficult course conditions", he explained. "I just like to go for it. After my great start at Tignes, I was hoping to keep on improving in the Giant Slalom, but I didn't expect to win so early.
It's a great feeling for sure. I was not too much disturbed by the weather. It was quite exciting. For the moment, I'm on a roll, but I know that there are still many more races to come."
Men's 3rd Downhill, 29,12,1997
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 MAIER Hermann  AUT   2:01.59
 2 SCHIFFERER Andreas  AUT   2:01.62
 3 FRANZ Werner  AUT   2:01.79
 4 EBERHARTER Stephan  AUT   2:01.83
 5 KJUS Lasse  NOR   2:02.01
 6 GREBER Christian  AUT   2:02.18
 7 BESSE William  SUI   2:02.24
 8 ASSINGER Roland  AUT   2:02.31
 9 CRETIER Jean-Luc  FRA   2:02.40
 10 TRINKL Hannes  AUT   2:02.45
 11 RUNGGALDIER Peter  ITA   2:02.58
 12 BURTIN Nicolas  FRA   2:02.60
 13 CUCHE Didier  SUI   2:02.61
 14 GHEDINA Kristian  ITA   2:02.62
 15 PODIVINSKY Ed  CAN   2:02.68
 16 STEMMLE Brian  CAN   2:02.78
 17 VITALINI Pietro  ITA   2:02.94
 18 SAUDER Luke  CAN   2:02.98
 19 PERATHONER Werner  ITA   2:03.29
 20 KRAUSS Stefan  GER   2:03.54
 20 GIGANDET Xavier  SUI   2:03.54
 22 ACCOLA Paul  SUI   2:03.58
 23 KERNEN Bruno Ii  SUI   2:03.71
 24 SIVERTSEN Kenneth  NOR   2:03.82
 25 DUVILLARD Adrien  FRA   2:03.85
 25 MARIN-CUDRAZ Frederic  FRA   2:03.85
 27 BREZAVSEK Ales  SLO   2:03.87
 28 GALLI Lorenzo  ITA   2:03.89
 29 HOFFMANN Ambrosi  SUI   2:03.93
 30 SELETTO Erik  ITA   2:04.05
 31 MADER Guenther  AUT   2:04.22
 32 KITT A J  USA   2:04.25
 33 ORTLIEB Patrick  AUT   2:04.29
 33 PRETOT David  FRA   2:04.29
 35 BRUNNER Michael  GER   2:04.42
 36 TSCHIEMER Hansueli  SUI   2:04.54
 37 HASLER Juergen  LIE   2:04.67
 38 FELLER Maurizio  ITA   2:04.72
 39 BELL Graham  GBR   2:05.11
 40 GROENVOLD Audun  NOR   2:05.52
 41 FORRER Christian  SUI   2:05.65
 42 SPRENGER Ludwig  ITA   2:05.89
 43 ZAKOURIL Borek  CZE   2:07.05
 44 TAKISHITA Yasuyuki  JPN   2:07.51

Did not finish 1st run:
FILISCHKIN Andrej (RUS), MELQUIOND Benjamin (FRA), STROBL Fritz (AUT), STROBL Josef (AUT), CATTANEO Luca (ITA), CAVEGN Franco (SUI), DEISSENBOECK Christian (GER), HERRMANN Markus (SUI)

Disqualified 1st run:
MARULLAZ Robin (FRA)

 Men's 4th Downhill, 30,12,1997
Rank Name Nat. Total
 1 SCHIFFERER Andreas  AUT   2:01.44
 2 FRANZ Werner  AUT   2:01.62
 3 KJUS Lasse  NOR   2:02.10
 4 MAIER Hermann  AUT   2:02.19
 5 TRINKL Hannes  AUT   2:02.50
 6 KERNEN Bruno Ii  SUI   2:02.52
 7 EBERHARTER Stephan  AUT   2:02.58
 8 ASSINGER Roland  AUT   2:02.89
 9 STEMMLE Brian  CAN   2:02.97
 10 PERATHONER Werner  ITA   2:03.04
 11 CUCHE Didier  SUI   2:03.09
 12 GREBER Christian  AUT   2:03.18
 13 SAUDER Luke  CAN   2:03.22
 14 RUNGGALDIER Peter  ITA   2:03.47
 15 MADER Guenther  AUT   2:03.54
 16 GHEDINA Kristian  ITA   2:03.59
 17 BESSE William  SUI   2:03.61
 18 BURTIN Nicolas  FRA   2:03.67
 19 CRETIER Jean-Luc  FRA   2:03.68
 20 BRUNNER Michael  GER   2:03.82
 21 VITALINI Pietro  ITA   2:03.92
 22 FATTORI Alessandro  ITA   2:03.93
 23 KRAUSS Stefan  GER   2:04.28
 24 CATTANEO Luca  ITA   2:04.29
 25 TSCHIEMER Hansueli  SUI   2:04.35
 26 KITT A J  USA   2:04.47
 27 GIGANDET Xavier  SUI   2:04.65
 28 CAVEGN Franco  SUI   2:04.68
 29 BREZAVSEK Ales  SLO   2:04.73
 30 SELETTO Erik  ITA   2:04.75
 31 MARIN-CUDRAZ Frederic  FRA   2:04.84
 32 ORTLIEB Patrick  AUT   2:04.85
 32 DUVILLARD Adrien  FRA   2:04.85
 34 GALLI Lorenzo  ITA   2:04.95
 35 PRETOT David  FRA   2:05.09
 36 PODIVINSKY Ed  CAN   2:05.24
 37 FORRER Christian  SUI   2:05.47
 38 HERRMANN Markus  SUI   2:05.56
 39 HASLER Juergen  LIE   2:06.25
 40 TAKISHITA Yasuyuki  JPN   2:06.34
 41 SENIGAGLIESI Alberto  ITA   2:06.67
 42 BELL Graham  GBR   2:06.74
 43 FILISCHKIN Andrej  RUS   2:06.93
 44 MEILLEUR Cedric  FRA   2:07.91
 45 DENERIAZ Antoine  FRA   2:09.29
 46 SIVERTSEN Kenneth  NOR   2:23.43

Did not start 1st run:
GROENVOLD Audun (NOR)

Did not finish 1st run:
ACCOLA Paul (SUI), HOFFMANN Ambrosi (SUI), STROBL Fritz (AUT), STROBL Josef (AUT), ZAKOURIL Borek (CZE)