last stop before Olympics — for some

Notable names are missing from women’s World Cup speed races in Garmisch-Partekirchen this weekend considering that the Beijing Olympics are just one week away. However, for some top racers, the annual German tour stop will serve as one final, important pre-Games tuneup.

The traditional Garmisch-Partenkirchen downhill on the Kandahar 1 course is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a super-G on Sunday.

Ramona Siebenhofer, Corinne Suter, Mirjam Puchner and Germany’s Kira Weidle will all have an excellent opportunity to make up significant points on World Cup downhill leader Sofia Goggia. The Italian 2018 Olympic downhill gold medalist has begun physical rehabilitation following a dramatic crash in last Sunday’s super-G in Cortina, which resulted in a sprained left knee, a small fracture of her fibula bone and minor tendon damage. Her Olympic status is questionable.

Also absent is Breezy Johnson, who is dealing with the unfortunate consequences of a training run crash in Cortina that caused partially dislodged cartilage in her knee. The U.S. downhiller will miss next month’s Olympics in Beijing.

The Garmisch-Partenkirchen downhill is the sixth of nine races in the discipline on the season schedule. The Austrian Siebenhofer will kick out of the start gate, trailing Goggia by 136 points in the World Cup downhill standings.

Suter was fastest in Thursday’s opening training run on the technically demanding, shadowy, 2.9-kilometer track – she clocked 1:41.30. The 2021 world champion was just .06 seconds ahead of the 25-year-old German Weidle.

Many indicators would lead prognosticators to predict that Weidle – who possesses many trips down, a wealth of course knowledge, and numerous top results across multiple levels on the home German course – could nab her first career World Cup victory this weekend.

Weidle – who grew up racing with Ski Club Starnberg, located about a one-hour drive from Garmisch-Partenkirchen – seems to execute proficiently on her home mountain, most notably finishing third in a 2019 World Cup downhill. The German speed specialist has won multiple German national championships on the Kandahar course, her first in March 2016. It has nearly been ten years since Weidle raced on the Kandahar at the 2012 German Junior National Championships, competing as an inexperienced 16-year-old.

Weidle’s vast experience on the Kandahar 1 track should serve her well this weekend. Surprisingly, she is the only German competitor in the 43-racer field.

Not having teammates to share course reports or push each other during training is something that Weidle has become accustomed to, and knows how to deal with.

“It is challenging – especially the whole summer, when you’re always alone with just your coaches and technician,” Weidle told Ski Racing Media following a training run last week in Cortina.  “It’s difficult because if you have a teammate, another girl around you with the same emotions and feelings, it’s much easier to talk.

“Still, with my team around me, we have a really great relationship, and I think that the most important thing for me is to talk about everything with them, even the bad stuff.”

By comparison, Weidle is essentially competing solo against athletes from the Austrian Ski Team, which have 11 starters this weekend in the Bavarian resort. The Italians and Swiss each have seven racers present.

Weidle would have been fastest in Thursday’s training had she not lost valuable time in the middle, technical ‘Eishang’ section. Fortunately, for the German racer, she pulled back significant tenths as the fastest racer on the lower part, from Tauber Schuss down through the finish.

Suter’s run contrasted from Weidle, as the Swiss was fastest through the middle section of the course, but relinquished time at the bottom. Suter, who has been impressive this season overcoming a pre-season fall in Zermatt that resulted in weeks of rehabilitation, clocked the fastest average speed at 103.77-Kph. Weidle was close behind with 103.71.

Swiss veteran Lara Gut-Behrami is another non-starter, seeking rest and recovery ahead of the Olympics, perhaps still slowed by a case of COVID-19 in mid-December that forced her out of races.

“Due to Covid and the resulting lack of exercise, many are concerned about my health and the effort to recover physically and mentally,” Gut-Behrami wrote on her social media before Kronplatz, a giant slalom that she also sat out.  “My goal now is to regain energy and composure for the rest of the season.”

Despite standing 1-2 in the overall World Cup standings, Mikaela Shiffrin (1026 pts.) and Petra Vlhova (1009 pts.), not surprisingly, are also foregoing the two German races, both preparing for intensive Olympic race schedules next month. Czech double Olympic gold medalist Ester Ledecka – who posted a season-best third in last weekend’s Cortina downhill – is also taking a break from ski racing this weekend.

The Kandahar races possess an illuminous history in the sport with the premier of the event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1954. The first World Cup competitions were organized in the Bavarian ski resort in 1969-70.

Weidle will have immense local support, including that of Ski Club Garmisch, co-organizers of the race with the German Ski Federation and former Olympic town.

The ever-improving German downhiller will seek victory on the tricky course that her teammate Viktoria Riebensburg won on in 2020, the last time a women’s World Cup downhill was contested here.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch, a Partenkirchen resident, won the inaugural race on Kandahar 1 in 2010, and still holds the course record of 1:34.82. One year later, the popular local racer and former overall World Cup champion sped to a downhill bronze medal at the 2011 world championships in the Bavarian resort.

U.S. Ski Team racers in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Jackie Wiles was the fastest in training among five U.S. Ski Team starters in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The 29-year-old Washington resident was eighth, 1.22 seconds off Suter’s time. Her racing continues to improve following two knee surgeries this past offseason.

Alix Wilkinson was 27th (+ 3.04), Keely Cashman 34th (+ 4.33), Tricia Mangan 35th (+ 4.47) and Maureen Lebel 38th (+ 4.87).

The weather forecast for this weekend’s German races does not look promising. A fifty-percent chance of light rain and mixed precipitation on both days, with cloudy skies and mild temperatures, could make for less than ideal racing conditions.

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