The ski cross circuit is back in Europe and ready for some great racing in Austria’s long-term installed ski cross course at the Crosspark Reiteralm. The location is well known among the ski and snowboard cross community as training facility and since last year, the venue has also become a stop on the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup tour.
Where have we left off…?
But, let’s refresh our memories, where the World Cup tour has left off. The last stop before the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing was way up north in Sweden’s Idre Fjall resort. That’s where we saw home hero Sandra Naeslund grab another double-win, just underlining her extraordinary shape this year. We don’t mean to repeat ourselves over and over again, but we would like to point out that Naeslund has won 9 out of 10 World Cups this season. In addition to that, the 25-year-old has also claimed the Olympic gold medal and since the cancellation of the double races in Sunny Valley, it is now official that Naeslund has also won the overall SX crystal globe this season. Her margin (950 points) is so large that runner-up Fanny Smith (566 points) is no threat to the Swede, which means that she will add a third crystal globe to her existing collection.
Of course, Fanny Smith, who raced to second place here in Austria’s Reiteralm resort at the World Cup premiere last season, will try to claim her first World Cup victory this season, to enlarge her margin of overall World Cup victories, to which she holds the record so far among men and women with a total of 29 victories. It is now clear that Naeslund will not be able to break that record this season with the two Russian races cancelled, however the gap is getting smaller and smaller, so Smith will definitely try to do anything in her power to defend that record.
As third female athlete to be thrown into the mix here, it just seems obvious to name Marielle Thompson (CAN). Freshly crowned Olympic silver medallist and four podium wins this season, of which one was a victory, that is a pretty remarkable statistic when you think about that Thompson had to cut last season short due to a knee injury. The top athlete put all of her efforts into a very successful rehab during the summer, which definitely paid off. Thompson has 25 victories to her name so far, so the Canadian is getting closer to Smith’s all-time winning record as well. Let’s see, what she will be able to pull of at the Austrian venue.
Olympic Champion Regez is also World Cup leader
Looking on the men’s side of things, Swiss Olympic Champion Ryan Regez seems to have risen to incredible racing super powers. With his double-win in Idre Fjall (SWE) just before the Olympics, he seemed to have gained some good amount of confidence to take to the Olympic gold medal battle. And he did it, he did win gold for Switzerland, just ahead of teammate Alex Fiva.
It is probably safe to say that Regez should now be on the watchlist of potential World Cup winners. With only two races left, one in Reiteralm and the World Cup finals in Veysonnaz (SUI), Regez will need to get down two good results, because the gentlemen who also want the ctystal globe in their hands by the end of the season, are just on his tails at the World Cup standings.
It is actually Frenchman Terence Tchicknavorian, who owns the exact amount of points as Regez, which is 447 points, and currently therefore is in the pole position for the crystal globe battle. But just behind the two is Bastien Midol with 441 points. The Frenchman raced to third place here in Reiteralm last year and Midol also has showed some strong racing throughout the season and with the chance to win the overall World Cup title, we surely can expect some good racing from him until the very end. Because you know…it’s not over, until it’s over, right?!
If we had to guess, we would say that even after Reiteralm, the World Cup standings could stay really tight and then we would be heading into World Cup finals with one race left and three guys fighting for the globe…but let’s wait and see and take another look after the Austrian race, shall we?!
Reiteralm title defenders from March 2021: Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and Johannes Rohrweck (AUT).
Time trial qualifications are scheduled for March 11 at 11:30 CET, which you can follow via live timing on the FIS App or on our website.
Finals are slated to go down on Sunday, March 13 at 10:30 CET.
WATCH LIVE (subject to change):
Sunday, March 13 at 10:30 CET:
ORF 1 (Austria), Eurosport (Europe), SVT (Sweden), SRG (Switzerland)
Livestream: ARD (Germany)
QUICK LINKS:
