Swiss double victory

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Katharina Liensberger takes bronze in the World Championship slalom!(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Katharina Liensberger won the bronze medal in the women's World Championship slalom in Saalbach! Switzerland's Camille Rast celebrated the gold, ahead of her compatriot Wendy Holdener. Mikaela Shiffrin surprisingly came away empty-handed.

25-year-old Camille Rast has been crowned the new slalom world champion and won Switzerland's fourth gold medal in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. Behind her was her compatriot Wendy Holdener (+0.46 sec.), while the bronze medal went to Katharina Liensberger from Vorarlberg (+1.32 sec.) in front of 16,700 spectators. US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin came away empty-handed in fifth place, Katharina Truppe finished in seventh.

Katharina Liensberger takes bronze in the World Championship slalom!(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

Rast is the first Swiss slalom world champion since Vreni Schneider in 1991, also in Saalbach. Since then, there have only been two medals, one of which Holdener took silver in St. Moritz in 2017. "Everything has to go right for a medal, it all worked out, I'm happy. I was mentally ready, I wanted to enjoy the whole day. The cool team spirit is very important in our team A podium with Wendy, that's cool."

The World Championship slalom podium: Liensberger (right), Rast (center) and Holdener (left)(Bild: Sepp Pail)

Seventh medal for Austria in Saalbach
This was Austria's seventh medal at its home World Championships, following gold medals for Stephanie Venier (super-G) and Raphael Haaser (giant slalom) as well as silver medals for Haaser (super-G), Mirjam Puchner (downhill) and Vincent Kriechmayr (downhill) and bronze for Stephanie Venier/Katharina Truppe (team combined).

Here are the results in detail:

"It's so wonderful, I'm so grateful. That after a long time where it wasn't easy, especially after Cortina, it was enough to win a medal again," said Liensberger, who won World Championship gold in the slalom four years ago. With the attitude that she loves skiing, a lot is possible. "I've certainly changed over the last few years. It's the toughest experiences that help you the most. When you have the feeling that nothing works anymore."

Truppe, who will leave with the best slalom performance of the season, was also satisfied. "The way I took off was just crazy. I already felt like a little star, it gave me goosebumps, it was so beautiful. I've never finished with a one in the second round this year, the fact that I did it right there was crazy," said the Carinthian. "This week will certainly be unforgettable."

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Race with many retirements
Katharina Huber dropped back from 13th place at the halfway point to 14th. "I'm basically a bit of a head person and perhaps think a bit too much instead of just going for it," said Huber. Katharina Gallhuber was eliminated in the first run. "It's very bitter when you drop out in the first run in the most awesome race you can experience in an athlete's career," said the 27-year-old.

Austria's technical coach Klaus Mayrhofer came up with something special for the first ten gates. He put in the combination "hairpin, hairpin, long turn, hairpin", the passage and several others proved to be an unmanageable difficulty for many in the fast-paced first run. Only 45 out of 116 made it to the finish. The second run also brought a flood of retirements.