Hermann Maier of Austria, the former bricklayer emerging as one of the world's great Alpine skiers, capped a magnificent visit to America on Saturday with a victory in the first super-G of the World Cup season.
Maier, who won the World Cup giant slalom in Park City, Utah, two weeks ago and was second in the downhill on Beaver Creek Mountain on Friday, conquered a brutally steep, bumpy and icy course that decimated the field.For the second day in a row, an Austrian onslaught overwhelmed the competition, taking the first four places in the super-G after sweeping the top five spots in Friday's downhill.
The super-G was run on a lower section of the new Birds of Prey downhill course, starting on an icy, 45-degree slope with tight turns that proved too much for 31 of the 66 entrants who either fell or missed gates and were disqualified.
Maier's strong showing in the giant slalom, a technical event, along with his performance in the speed events this week in the Rockies, stamped him as a leading contender for the overall World Cup crown, which hasn't been won by an Austrian since Karl Schranz in 1970. He also looms as a candidate for multiple Olympic medals.
"For me, I think it's my physical condition," Maier said. "I have a new condition trainer and this year we worked on endurance for the first time."
Maier, 25, holds a 132-point lead over runnerup Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway in the overall World Cup standings as the tour heads to Europe for two months of competition leading up to February's Olympics in Japan. Aamodt missed a gate Saturday and failed to get a point.
Women's World Cup
At Lake Louise, Alberta, Katja Seizinger made one thing abundantly clear this week - it won't be easy to knock her off the winners' podium on the women's World Cup ski circuit this season.
Seizinger, 25, won her third race in a row at Lake Louise on Saturday - this time a Super-G event - after skiing to victories on Thursday and Friday in separate downhill events.
She ran through the rock-hard 6,294-yard, 31-gate Super-G course in 1 minute, 14.71 seconds. Her German teammate, Hilde Gerg, was second in 1:15.04 and Isolde Kostner of Italy was third at 1:15.09.
Seizinger has put her stamp on the Lake Louise course, winning three downhill and three Super-G events on the mountain.
"I don't know (when I will move here)," she said laughing. "But I will come back for some holidays."