Olympic hero is back

Matthias Mayer celebrated his comeback in Zauchensee

Matthias Mayer started as the forerunner in the women's European Cup downhill in Zauchensee.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

"That's not Matthias Mayer, is it?", wondered one or two people watching the women's European Cup downhill in Zauchensee on Wednesday, when suddenly a man in a blue Uniqa helmet swung into the finish area. And indeed: the three-time Olympic champion quietly made his comeback as a forerunner.

Mayer - who won Olympic gold in the downhill in 2014 and triumphed in the super-G at both the 2018 and 2022 Games - ruled out a comeback with a wild card, as Lindsey Vonn and Marcel Hirscher have already done this season. However, the 34-year-old from Carinthia announced that he would like to compete as a forerunner at the home World Championships in Saalbach in February.

Matthias Mayer still knows how to be fast on the downhill.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

At the finish line, the joy of his "comeback" was written all over his face.(Bild: GEPA pictures)

However, this is a project that also requires preparation. And in order to cut as good a figure as possible at the World Championships, "Mothl" treated himself to a test run on the "Kälberloch" piste in Zauchensee. With start number "V1", the head pilot made the very first track in the snow - as he had already done in the training sessions on Monday and Tuesday - and proved that he still cut a great figure on the long slats.

Mayer tips brought quadruple victory
How fast he actually was was not revealed. What is certain, however, is that the winner of a total of eleven World Cup races sent important information by radio to the ÖSV ladies, who celebrated a quadruple victory led by Nadine Fest.