On Sunday (11.30 a.m. CET), Austria will be represented in the big-air final of the ski freestylers in Bakuriani with both ÖSV athletes. Lukas Müllauer and Matej Svancer safely reached the medal decision: after a few postponements, Müllauer won his qualifying heat with 96.40 points and Svancer came third in the same run with 92.60 points. They will fight for the medals on the final day of the snowboard and ski freestyle world championships in Georgen.
“Now I feel like I’m 200 kilos lighter. It was a brutally stressful day, with a bit of pain, but I’m really happy that I got it down,” said Müller, whose stress started with a broken ski boot. “It was in the last jump in training when I would have started first. Then my ski boot broke and I asked upstairs if I could be put up,” said the man from Salzburg.
Ironically, the Swede Oliwer Magnusson immediately offered him his ski boot as a replacement. “It’s just a different shoe, a different angle from how I stand in it. The first qualifying heat went awry, luckily the second went like the day before yesterday in training,” he said with relief. The fact that he now made it into the final with the shoes of the world champion from two years ago is something that Müllauer takes with him “as a good omen”.
In difficult weather conditions with rain and wind, Matej Svancer felt comfortable. “It was chilled for me. I prefer to ski in such weather because it’s just soft.” The conditions did not let him become grumpy. “Maybe I was too happy today,” he joked. Now the two Salzburgers are hoping that the weather will allow for a fair final. “I hope the final will be held. It would certainly be cool to be in a final with Lukas again.”
This means that an ÖSV trio will be at the start on Sunday, because double Olympic champion Anna Gasser has qualified for the snowboard big air final.