The Olympic downhill run in Jeongseon should not be too difficult, but a tricky task. For example, ski racer Hannes Reichelt described it after the first practice session on Thursday, in which he was 2.08 seconds behind. The best was the Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis ahead of Kjetil Jansrud (NOR/0.31), Mauro Caviezel (SUI/0.45) and Olympic champion Matthias Mayer (0.75).
After only 1:40.45 minutes, Osborne-Paradis dropped out of the finish line, the speed aces didn’t really sweat a lot on the blunt and aggressive snow. Difficulty and speed are kept to a minimum, but faultless passage and the perfect material atmosphere will play a major role “It requires a clean and precise ride from top to bottom, like in one piece. And you have to make sure that you set the pace. You are not allowed to make a mistake here,”said Vincent Kriechmayr (+1.88).
It is a beautiful descent, with little speed and not really spectacular. Kriechmayr said that this had nothing to do with the classics:”When you’re on tour as a tourist, it’s unbelievable, the track is super groomed. But also for us it is unbelievable to ski on this snow, you get a really good feeling. It is not a mousetrap or a Brüggli-S inside, making it all the more difficult to be fast. I’m an athlete who prefers something more demanding. In the World Cup, this would be one of the easier downhill runs,” said the Upper Austrian.
Olympic gold medallist Mayer already got along quite well:”I am only fourth, that would be exactly the Lederne”, he said laughingly,”For the first time it was absolutely okay, I wanted to go for a sightseeing tour, which I did very well. The curves are relatively the same from start to finish, you have to drive very concentrated “The jumps are nice, but the descent is a bit short. You’re not really tired when you’re at the finish line,” he believes there will be a big circle of favourites.
Like Mayer, Max Franz was also absent from the 2016 Olympic test due to injury, so he is in Jeongseon for the first time. He came sixth with a gap of 0.94 seconds, and immediately after jumping for the first time he got in and lost time,”I held up well downstairs. It’s cool to drive, it’s good for me. You have to play a little bit, take the narrower line, drive a few meters, but don’t push too hard.”
During his video studies, he will work on fine tuning the line. It is not necessarily the most demanding part of the season, but there are some passages inside which are difficult to drive,”and it is a descent on which many can be very fast. There’s nothing in there to beat the shit out of. That’s what’s dangerous, there must be every curve. It’s going to be a fight, a fiddling around the line to find the right material because it’s so aggressive,”Franz knows what to do in the next few days.
“Interesting is the departure. I still can’t say that it’s good for me if I’m two seconds behind,”said Reichelt,”I think it’s going to be a bit of a material or setup battle, you can’t afford to make any mistakes. And today I have allowed myself too many because you can never really pick up the pace again. Because there are no passages where it’s really steep so that you can get your momentum back. That makes it very difficult to be quick. It’s getting wishy-washy.”
The snow, compared to that of Beaver Creek, suggests that it might suit him, but there’s a lot of work to be done for him and the serviceman,”It looks relatively simple to watch. But to be quick, it’s certainly a challenge. There is no passage like Kitzbühel steep slope, where you can make up for it with brutality and courage.”
The Swiss World Champion Beat Feuz, the winner of the downhill races in Lake Louise, Wengen and Garmisch-Partenkirchen this winter, laughingly commented on the question of whether the circuit was worthy of the World Cup:”It’s worthy of the Olympics. I don’t feel like we’re going to be driving World Cup races around here much longer, let’s put it this way.”