Like Felix Neureuther, Aksel Lund Svindal also received medical treatment at the beginning of the season for a thumb injury. The Norwegian downhill Olympic champion was maltreated during training in Copper Mountain/USA, where most of the downhill elite are preparing for the speed kick-off weekend in Lake Louise, Canada.
Svindal had already contracted a torn ligament in the thumb of his left hand on Thursday and had it repaired immediately in Vail. “The injury was a little more complicated than first thought,” Svindal wrote under his photo on Instagram, and again ulke with the question: “How’s your hand, Felix Neureuther?
The Norwegian is obviously confident that he will still be able to start in Canada (downhill and Super-G). “Racing should be possible in the near future,” wrote Svindal.
Max Franz is not in optimal condition when he comes to Lake Louise. In Carinthia, cartilage damage to the knee causes such problems that the 2017 World Cup third in Colorado had to undergo an MRI examination. “For him, it’s particularly bitter because of the metabolism. He would have needed every kilometre, but was not able to train optimally here”, reported ÖSV Downhill Manager Sepp Brunner to the APA from Copper Mountain.
The snow conditions there have been very good for some time. Austria’s speed men’s team around Matthias Mayer, Vincent Kriechmayr, Max Franz and Hannes Reichelt trained up to and including (today) Sunday in Colorado and will fly to Canada on Monday. Already there is the group with Christoph Krenn, Niklas Köck, Christopher Neumayer etc. who has prepared in Nakiska.
There it had come a year ago to the deadly training fall of the Frenchman David Poisson. This time, however, ÖSV drivers were able to concentrate on practicing.
Much more activity was in Copper, where practically all nations except Switzerland and Canada are preparing for the speed start in Lake Louise (men, then women) or Beaver Creek (men). Also the ÖSV ladies and Lindsey Vonn, who will start her last season in Canada in two weeks.
“Copper is always worth a trip,” said Brunner, praising above all the high safety standard in the speed center of the US federation. “There are A nets and B fences, here you can train really well for racing,” praised the Styrian.
However, the conditions were remarkably compact in view of the abundance of natural snow and the expected favourites were not always at the top. “But this is often the case here. It can be quite different in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek,” Brunner believes.