Katharina Liensberger had her aha moment in Sölden a year ago. Fourth place in the giant slalom there was by far the best performance of the woman from Vorarlberg at the start of the Alpine Ski World Cup. This is how it should continue for them on Saturday next week (October 22nd) at the start of the World Cup winter. The preparation brought some innovations to the slalom runners-up in the Beijing Games, primarily through coach Livio Magoni. The new man in the ÖSV team takes special care of her.
Liensberger openly accepted the change in the coaching sector. “As soon as you change, there are new approaches and new perspectives. Everyone has their own ideas and philosophies. You have to accept that and take the next steps,” the 25-year-old was already aware of the new situation after the end of the season. This was followed by 30 days of snow up to the beginning of July alone, during which many technical changes were made. “We knew we really had to start a lot from scratch. It just takes a certain amount of time and lots of good snow days.”
The double world champion 2021 holds three Olympic and five World Championship medals, and ideally wants to successfully defend her slalom World Championship title in Courchevel/Meribel in February. Are changes in training not counterproductive? Liensberger sees things very differently: “Changes are always an opportunity to expand, build up, do better. I just want to take the opportunity and develop myself further. It’s been very successful years so far and now it’s time to take the next steps with the changes that have been made put.”
In Ushuaia in Argentina, the team Olympic champion of the Beijing Games found winter training conditions like her ÖSV colleagues in the summer. Despite a lot of good training, she doesn’t feel quite ready for Sölden, Liensberger explained two weeks before the start at an ÖSV media event in Salzburg. But there is still a little time. The confidence is there: “Until last year I would have said that it was a difficult affair with Sölden. Thank God I was able to turn it around. Of course I hope that I can build on that.”
In the course of last winter, at the beginning of March, she only managed another top ten place in the giant slalom when she came sixth from Lenzerheide, and she was 15th at the Olympics. Accordingly, there is room for improvement. “I want to get ahead in giant slalom. There’s really a lot to do in the discipline,” said Liensberger in an interview with the APA – Austria Press Agency. In Austria, they are currently not setting the pace – neither in slalom. Of course, the competitive athlete takes it easy: “It’s enough if I’m in shape in the race.”
It is even more important for the three-time winner of World Cup slaloms in slalom, which is still her main discipline. “I want to focus on that very clearly this season. Even though I’ve already shown very good results in giant slalom, the slalom has always been easier for me.” It starts between the narrower poles on the 19th/20th. November in Levi, the parallel competition in Lech/Zürs is scheduled for a week before.
At the end of the season, Liensberger ideally wants to hold the slalom ball in his hands, as was the case in the season before last. Last winter, after a win in March in Aare and second and third place in Lienz and Zagreb around the turn of the year, she finished fourth in the discipline classification. However, Liensberger does not want to put pressure on himself in the pursuit of crystal again: “It happens when the time is right. I had a ball, I know how it feels – and very well. So I want to achieve that again.”