Winter sports: sensational win on the Streif: Dreßen turns the ski world upside down

Thomas Dreßen sensationally wins the World Cup downhill in Kitzbühel. With a little luck he turns the ski world upside down. Andreas Sander is in excellent sixth place.

When tens of thousands screamed out, Thomas Dreßen did not understand at first. At the second glance he realized that the “1” next to his name was lit up, tore his arms up, unbuckled his skis, balanced them into the air – and shouted out his joy. Then he paused for a moment, knelt and lowered his head. It was boiling around him.

Even in the VIP grandstand they stood, the rich and beautiful, cheering for him. Thomas Dreßen, Germany, winner of the most important and prestigious ski race on this side of the Olympic Games – the descent on the Streif in Kitzbühel.

It was no less than a sensation, and Dreßen could hardly find words for it.”It was simply awesome,”he said,”it was always a dream of mine to win a World Cup downhill race, also Kitzbühel, and the fact that I managed to do it all in one fell swoop is simply unbelievable.” In fact, it is. Dreßen, 24 years old, turned the ski world upside down. At least a little bit. The fact that one wins his first World Cup race on the Streif is rare enough. The fact that you can succeed in such a young age is no less extraordinary and a contradiction to the thesis that routine counts above all in the alpine supreme discipline.

When Dreßen, late at the start with the number 19, came across the finish line after intermediate best times and finally 1’56.16 minutes, the injured Felix Neureuther, who was running through the finish area on crutches, was stunned:”I’ve never had such goosebumps like this before in a ski race,”he said.

One of the first congratulators was Sepp Ferstl, who had been the last German to win the downhill run on the Streif 39 years ago,”Thank God that I’m relieved now because you can’t hold out,”said Ferstl, who had already won the downhill run a year earlier in 1978.

Dreßen had a bit of luck, too. When he catapulted himself out of the starting house at 12.26 p. m. and into the 3312 m long strip, the sun had just come out, and better visibility means: better times:”He has taken advantage of this shamelessly”, said the Austrian Hannes Reichelt, third (+0.41 seconds) behind Dreßen and world champion Beat Feuz (Switzerland/+0.21) – and also not uninvolved in the victory of the young German. He chose the 1, for Dreßen the 19. Lucky break.

“Who knows, maybe someone was watching from above and made the sun shine a little more on me,”Dreßen said. An allusion to his father Dirk, who died in September 2005 in a cable car accident in Sölden. In honour of him, he has painted the “44” on his helmet, it stands for “DD” – the fourth letter in the alphabet is the “D”. The thought of the father was also shot through the head this time, but Dreßen added:”Thanksgiving goes not only to the top, but also to my mum. If she wouldn’t have supported me and stood behind me, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Andreas Sander was only 0.14 seconds behind his team-mate’s time when he entered the finish line, but still finished sixth after a mistake. Josef Ferstl, Ferstl Junior, finished 20th.

“If it all worked out, I could have rode on the podium,”said Sander, who was otherwise delighted with Dreßen:”Great, blatant, blatant! Winning a race, then even Kitz, is a bit kitschy. But maybe he will win two races this year:” In three weeks the Olympic downhill race will start in Pyeongchang?