BEAVER CREEK, Colo.—Austria’s skiers couldn’t wait to get to the airport and head home to celebrate.
Their slump was over with a sweep of Monday’s World Cup super-G in which they took five of the top six places.
As for the Americans, not much to cheer about. The best they could manage at home was Ted Ligety in 23rd place, with Bode Miller 30th.
Hannes Reichelt led the Austrians, followed by teammates Mario Scheiber and Christoph Gruber. This was Reichelt’s second straight victory in the discipline on the Birds of Prey course.
The Austrians arrived at Beaver Creek winless but left with two victories—Michael Walchhofer won Friday’s downhill—and a total of five top-three finishes. The drought was practically a national crisis back home.
“We can go home happy with our chins held high,” Reichelt said.
“No press conference!” Scheiber shouted, joking with reporters. “Let us go home quickly!”
The Austrians aren’t unfamiliar with sluggish starts. Last year, the men didn’t win until Dec. 28, a downhill victory by Walchhofer, in Bormio, Italy, that ended a 13-race slump. The following day, Walchhofer won another downhill.
On Monday, Reichelt was the first skier out of the start hut. He charged down the sun-drenched course in 1 minute, 19.87 seconds, edging Scheiber by 0.02 seconds. Gruber was 0.21 off the winning pace.
“When you are starting No. 1, you know you aren’t going to get any radio reports from your teammates who went before you warning you about tricky parts,” Reichelt said. “So you don’t overthink things when you are starting first.
“I did a good inspection of the course before the race, and just told myself to do my best and ski what I saw in inspection.”
It was Reichelt’s second World Cup victory, his other coming in the same event on the same course in 2005. Reichelt started early, in seventh, when he won the last time here, too.
The last time a nation swept a men’s World Cup event was 2006, with Austrians Hermann Maier, Klaus Kroell and Andreas Buder dominating a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The last time it happened in a super-G was when Walchhofer, Maier and Raich went 1-2-3 at Val Gardena, Italy, in 2005.
Ligety was 1.09 back. This marked the first time since 2003 that Miller failed to failed to finish among the top three at home.
“That was my first run on these skis. I hit a rock. That’s bad luck,” said Miller, the reigning World Cup super-G champion. “Once I got to the third gate I realized that the whole edge was gone, completely folded.”
Last year the New Hampshire skier won the downhill in Beaver Creek, and the season before that he won the GS and was runner-up in the downhill. In 2004, he clinched the downhill and came in second in the super-G.
Steven Nyman, another favorite on the American team, failed to finish.
Switzerland’s Daniel Albrecht, winner of this week’s super-combi and giant slalom, broke the Austrian run by finishing fourth in 1:20.18. Albrecht squeezed in front of Walchhofer and 2006 overall champion Benjamin Raich, who shared fifth in 1:20.21.
Albrecht overtook teammate Didier Cuche in the overall standings and now leads with 272 points after eight races. Cuche, who finished 11th, was in second with 259 points and Raich was third with 255.
Raich, known as more of a speed specialist, became the surprise leader of the super-G standings with 125 points after two races. Reichelt was second at 109, while overall World Cup champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway—whose season probably ended after a bad crash during training Tuesday—slipped to third with 100.
