Unheralded Strolz is shock winner of Adelboden WC slalom

ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — Wearing low-ranked bib No. 38, Johannes Strolz was the shocking winner of a World Cup slalom on Sunday.

The 29-year-old Austrian had a career-best finish of 10th in more than eight years of World Cup racing. The son of an Olympic champion was in tears as he sat in the finish-area leader’s seat watching rivals fail to match his time.

First-run joint leader Manuel Feller bowed theatrically across the finish area to acclaim his unheralded compatriot after seeing his time was 0.17 seconds behind in second place.

Strolz is not even an official member of the powerful Austria team this season and prepares his own skis for races without the help of a technician.

Linus Strasser of Germany was third, trailing by 0.29. Strasser had been 14th-fastest in a tightly contest first run in the morning when Strolz placed seventh.

Still, Strolz had only 0.17 to make up in the second leg raced through steadily falling snow on the storied Chuesnisbärgli hill at Adelboden.

“Finally now it all came together,” said Strolz, who placed 10th in a World Cup slalom two years ago. “I just tried to focus on my skiing.”

Strolz’s father, Hubert, took gold in combined at the 1988 Calgary Olympics and also silver in giant slalom.

His chance for victory Sunday first opened up when three pre-race favorites failed to finish the first run.

World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag, wearing No. 1, slid out four gates from the end and No. 3 Clement Noël went out early in his run.

A crash for Kristoffer Jakobsen, who remains tied for the slalom standings lead with Foss-Solevaag, turned him around and sent him sliding into a finish-line structure.

Strolz soared directly into third place in the slalom standings with the 100 race points he earned for the surprise win.

The result had little impact on the overall World Cup standings. Defending champion Alexis Pinturault failed to finish his second run after being fifth-fastest in the morning and remains a distant fourth behind Marco Odermatt, who won Saturday’s giant slalom but skips slaloms.

Feller was runner up for the second straight day though seemed equally happy for Strolz to have won.

With five more World Cup slaloms before the Beijing Olympics open Feb. 4, Strolz has time to confirm the form of Sunday’s win and try to win selection to Alpine skiing’s Wunderteam.

The 2010 Olympic slalom champion, Guiliano Razzoli, placed ninth to give the 37-year-old Italian a third straight top-10 finish in what is shaping up as a bounceback season.

Wearing bib No. 43, American Luke Winters placed 10th just 0.77 behind Strolz. The result for Winters solidifies his chances of being named to the U.S Olympic team in what has become a highly competitive and more exclusive process. The men are currently only allocated six total spots.

“It feels good to put two together, I haven’t done that much in my career so far, especially here,” said Winters. “I’ve qualified three out of the four times, but I’ve had two bad second runs both years.”

Wearing bib 43, Winters came into second run sitting in 18th. He charged down the course, leading the field by three-tenths of a second in the third split, but lost a bit of time the last few gates, sliding behind proceeding athletes Loic Meillard and Alex Vinazter in third, enough to hang on to 10th overall.

“This year, before second, I just said I wanted to push it and ski hard and ski fast,” reflected Winters. “I wasn’t too worried about the result and I wasn’t too worried about my execution out of the gate. Coming through and seeing that third place felt good.”

RESULTS

The Associated Press and the U.S. Ski Team press office contributed to this report.