Like Linus Straßer, Fritz Dopfer had a hard time nibbling at the bitter disappointment in the last World Cup slalom before the Olympic Games, but at the thought of South Korea there was still a smile on his face. He is looking forward to the season’s highlight, Dopfer said,”I hadn’t dreamed I could be there before the season, but he’s not a medalist there,” emphasized the 2015 World Cup runner-up.
“My performance is between 20th and 30th place. I’m not a candidate for the very top positions at all,”said the Garmischer after finishing 20th in the spectacular Schladming Night Race, where Marcel Hirscher celebrated his 54th birthday. World Cup victory celebrated. After a shin and fibula fracture, Dopfer sees himself in a “transitional season”, at the end of which another operation is waiting for him. When the nail is removed from his left lower leg,”I’ll feel a little better again,”he said.
At the moment, however, four weeks before the Olympic slalom in Yongpyong (22. February), he was “a bit perplexed”, confessed Dopfer. He symbolically stands for the whole team of technicians, who without the patients Felix Neureuther and Stefan Luitz are standing naked,”There is something missing or very, very much on top,”said Dopfer,”that makes me think”.
Strasser was also contemplative after rank 18:”It’s up to my hair,” said the Munich man who sees himself as a victim of his own expectations:”That’s one thing I have to get a grip on:” If he could only bring half his training performance into the race, it would be enough for the top 10 every time – that’s the bitter thing and very strenuous for the head.”.
On Tuesday, Straßer is still contesting the City Event in Stockholm, which he won in 2017.”It doesn’t help,”he said,”I have to keep fighting. If you give everything, you make the move at some point – and then it can very quickly move forward again.”