BAD KLEINKIRCHHEIM, Austria — I was third in Saturday’s giant slalom, my second podium in three GS races this season. I’ve been second, third and fourth but haven’t won, and it’s getting a little frustrating.
I’m really happy with my GS. I was fourth at Beaver Creek, only .15 of a second behind the winner, and last week I was only .17 back. It’s just such a small fraction of time, but I’m super-happy with where I am, leading the tour in the GS standings.
Some of the course sets haven’t played to my strengths. The race Saturday was super straight. Bode Miller and I were talking, and we thought we were going 60 mph. That’s on the fast and scary side for GS.
My style is rounder, more-open turns on which you’re really developing turn shape.
I still don’t feel completely deserving of the red leader’s bib, because Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway is out with injuries he suffered in a bad crash at Beaver Creek. He was in better shape than anybody this season before his crash, so whatever I do this year is tainted a little because he’s not there.
He won the first GS of the season and the first super-G. He won the World Cup overall last season, and he was such a clear favorite this year.
Svindal suffered facial injuries, a deep cut in his upper leg and abdominal injuries on the first downhill training run at Beaver Creek. I went to see him in the hospital the next day. It was tough going in there. I’ve been good friends with him the past few years, and seeing him pretty beat up in a hospital bed was hard to take.
When you’re ski racing, you have to put out of your mind what can happen to you, but it’s tough to see somebody so athletic, who was skiing so well, to be in a bed unable to do what they want to do. He seemed in good spirits, under the circumstances.
He’s the kind of guy who is friends with everybody. He and Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein are the friendliest guys on the tour. Svindal is super easy-going, great sense of humor, always joking around.
