St. Christina, December 14, 2022 – On Wednesday evening at the team captains’ meeting in Selva Gardena, the start numbers for the first of the two descents on the Saslong were announced. On Thursday, December 15 at 12 noon, the Austrian Otmar Striedinger will be the first runner to leave the start house, which is located at the Super-G start at 2,010 meters.
The 31-year-old from Villach should be the first benchmark on the shortened route, as he was second on the podium in the last Val Gardena descent last year. Curious: Striedinger also started the race back then with start number 1.
While the two local heroes Christof Innerhofer and Dominik Paris crashing in her home race with the numbers 4 and 6 is a top favourite Aleksander Aamodt Source as the seventh athlete in line. Immediately behind the Norwegian follow with the Austrian Matthias Mayer (No. 8) and the Swiss Beat Feuz (No. 9) two more hot irons in the fight for the day’s victory.
The leader of the World Cup Total Score, Marco Odermatt (Switzerland), tackles his first descent on the Saslong with start number 12. This puts the all-rounder right after his compatriot Niels Hintermann – third in the downhill last year – on the slopes. Last year’s winner Bryce Bennett from the USA has the number 17 on his chest. Next to him you can also see the performances of his teammates Travis Ganong (No. 6) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (No. 16) be particularly excited.
The fastest drivers of the only training run only follow beyond the top 30: the second in training MattiaCasse from Italy has the number 31, Nils Allegre from France – fastest in the dress rehearsal – the high number 51. The third and last South Tyrolean, who contests the downhill on Thursday, is Florian Schieder from Castelrotto. He is the 55th runner. A total of 67 athletes are at the start of the first of three speed competitions on the Saslong.
Those: www.Saslong.org
The men’s ski world cup calendar for the 2022/23 season
The women’s ski world cup calendar for the 2022/23 season 