Ski Alpin: Veith criticizes non-nomination of Kirchgasser for Olympic Games

Ski star Anna Veith regrets the absence of her long-time room-mate Michaela Kirchgasser at the Olympic Games in South Korea. She excludes a start in combination and team competition for herself,”but I know that I am allowed to start in giant slalom. That’s why I know that I have two disciplines at my fingertips,”said the Salzburg native, pointing out that a place in the Super G team is practically certain.

The fact that Kirchgasser did not make it to the ÖSV-internal selection procedure for the Olympic Games is a pity for Veith,”she opened it in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,” I’m sorry for her, because I know what she has invested and accepted that she can make it after her injury in December “.

Kirchgasser had contracted a cruciate ligament distortion and a bone bruise in his right knee during the running-in for the slalom in Courchevel. It has been clear for some time now that the 32-year-old will end her career after the season,”Of course it’s only half as good for me personally because we’ve always shared our successes over the past few years. These were good times,”Veith reported.

For them, the “non-nomination” is a little bit incomprehensible, because someone who has already won medals knows how to do this and what belongs to it. Michi has simply made the last big events always a medal. I would have seen that as a big plus,”she explained,”but I don’t have the right to judge.”

In the combination, Kirchgasser would have had a good chance of winning a medal, Veith said,”To win the medal is something you have to be able to do. But of course there is not such a wide circle of candidates as in the giant slalom or in the Super-G. That’s a bit easier to narrow down in the station wagon. She would have been there for me.”

Veith could at best play three disciplines in the games:”The downhill run will prove it,”she assumes a qualification in South Korea. The team competition, on the other hand, is like the combination “no problem” for the 28-year-old.

In the Super-G, the Olympic champion of Sochi in 2014 has won the second of two races in Val d’ Isere in the current season in December 2017. In the Super-G-World Cup she is the best placed ÖSV representative in fourth place.

In the giant slalom, Veith won silver in Sochi four years ago, but has not yet been able to follow on from her previous successes in the World Cup after her serious knee injuries. This season, the head driver only came once in the classification: She finished 21st on the home RTL in Lienz.