World Championship race begins

Vinc’s first question after the crash: “Was I fast?”

Vincent Kriechmayr slid to the finish line after his heavy fall, in the evening he was examined by Dr. Christian Hoser.(Bild: AFP, Ski Austria)

"How fast was I?" Those were Vinc Kriechmayr's first words after his serious crash in the Wengen downhill. At least he was lucky in misfortune: "only" a pulled inner ligament. Now the World Championship race begins for our ski chief.

More than 40,000 fans at the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen: Record! A winning time of 2:22.58 minutes: course record! Marco Odermatt ahead of Franjo von Allmen and thus the fourth Swiss downhill double victory in a row: Swiss record!

Nothing to laugh about
A state of emergency on a day of records, but unfortunately we Austrians had nothing to laugh about. When Vincent Kriechmayr crashed heavily in the finish S and landed in the safety net, the biggest red-white-red speed hopes for the upcoming Kitzbühel weekend and the home World Championships in Saalbach were on the ropes. Vinc of all people, who is always so bombproof on his skis, who masters the dance on the risk razor blade like hardly anyone else and has therefore been spared serious falls and injuries so far. And who had proved the day before as super-G runner-up that he was back in full swing just in time.

Incisor partly gone
The crash happened right in front of the head coach Marko Pfeifer, who was positioned in the finish S. He was on the spot immediately. He saw how his protégé had lost part of his front tooth, had bleeding abrasions on his face and pain (on the right side of his body) in his hip, knee and ankle. "And the first thing Vinc wanted to know was: How fast was I going?" Pfeifer could hardly believe it.

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Kriechmayr skied the last few meters to the finish using only his left ski and was celebrated by the spectators. Afterwards, the Upper Austrian limped out of the finish area; for administrative reasons, the helicopter was only able to take off after several hours. Dr. Christian Hoser was already waiting at the private clinic in Hochrum. And the anxious wait for the results of the MRI examination began. With a severe strain of the medial collateral ligament, this could classically be described as "luck in misfortune", as Hoser also put it.

Vinc is our chief. Missing out on the World Cup would of course be bitter.

Marko Pfeifer

"At first I thought the injury was worse because I could hardly put any weight on the leg," Kriechmayr said after the examination. "I'm glad it turned out like this. Now I'll do everything I can to be as fit as possible by the World Championships. I can only look from day to day now anyway!"

Head coach Pfeifer was naturally also relieved that Kriechmayr was at least spared a torn cruciate ligament diagnosis. "Vinc is our chief and therefore important for the whole team. A loss at the World Championships would of course be bitter." The race begins!