The men’s 2023-24 slalom season has been Austira’s domain. Today, the winner of the opening slalom of the season, Manuel Feller, is once again victorious. Fifth, after the first run, he knew that only a run at his limit would move him to the top, so he pushed harder than his first run and executed brilliantly to the bottom of the hill.
“I saw, OK, these young guns from Norway; they’re going really hard,” Feller said, “so I need to go a little bit more on the limit. That’s what I did for the second run. It’s also a lot of risk because this hill is so difficult; you can make a mistake at every gate.”
U.S.-born Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath finished the day in second place, matching his Adelboden result from 2023. However, it is the first Norwegian slalom podium of the season.
“It’s an amazing result,” McGrath said of his first World Cup podium since last year’s Adelboden slalom race. “Coming back from injury like I have now, being back on the podium so quickly in probably the toughest conditions you can get.”
Remarkably, Feller’s teammate bib 35, Dominik Raschner, used the fastest second run and moved up 13 positions during the afternoon to take the third step of the podium. This is Raschner’s first World Cup slalom podium.
Raschner said, “It’s unbelievable for me; I gave everything in the second run.”
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Notably, Feller, who has won two of the three slaloms this season, finished last season without motivation to continue. Before the start of the season, he talked about the mental work he had done during the prep period to regain his passion. It worked. He is passionately motivated.
The Adelboden win represents his fourth career World Cup slalom victory. He is once again the leader of the season’s slalom standings.
The excitement of the final racers of the second run of a World Cup tech race is fantastic. The first of the last five to ski was Feller. Feller executed at his limit and earned the top of the leaderboard (-0.23) ahead of his teammate Raschner.
Then, the fourth-best skier of the morning, 4th place German Linus Strasser, finished behind both Austrians. The next to ski was Italian Tommaso Sala, who crossed in 6th.
That left only the two young Norwegians at the start. Atle Lie McGrath finished just (+0.02) behind Feller, leaving only Steen Olsen in the start. When first-run leader Steen Olsen had trouble and did not finish, Feller knew he had won, and his teammate, who started the day with bib 35, would be third.
Notably, Lie McGrath finishes 2nd for the second year in a row. Austria has won three slaloms in a row for the first time since Marcel Hirscher did it in 2018.
The first Swiss athlete to ski in the finale was the exceptional Loic Meillard. The tenth racer on the course crossed with a (-0.78) advantage and it was assumed he would lead for a while. However, three skiers later, French veteran Steven Amiez took the lead by (-0.03). Two racers later, the morning’s fastest racer with a bib above 30, Raschner, 16th after the first run, took the lead from the French athlete by (-0.74). Raschner dramatically held off the following ten racers.
North American success
Among the first three to start the second run were the two Stifel US Ski Team members, Benjamin Ritchie and River Radamus. Both men crossed the finish line with the lead.
However, Radamus crossed (-0.50) faster than Ritchie. Radamus, who qualified for his first World Cup slalom final in the morning, moved to the leader’s chair and shared a moment with his teammate Ritchie.
Radamus said, “Obviously, because I’ve been skiing (slalom) so little, I had the pressure off, and so it allowed me to ski, freer and take more risk and it paid off today, so I’m very happy.”
Unfortunately, the next racer to ski, Croatian Istok Rodes, immediately assumed the lead and temporarily took the throne. The fact that the Stifel US Ski Team had two in a slalom finish was undoubtedly a reason to celebrate.
Canadian Erik Read was the last North American to race the afternoon course and crossed the finish in fourth place. Oddly, at that moment, he was immediately between Radamus and Ritchie. While these are not the results North Americans need to be competitive with the elites of slalom, it is a good start.
At the end of the race, Radamus had moved up ten spots and finished 19th (+2.15). Erik Read moved up four positions, finishing 20th (+2.19), and Ritchie moved up seven places and finished 23rd (+2.65). Adelboden marks the best day of men’s North American World Cup slalom this season.
Next stop
The men’s next World Cup is the Beaver Creek replacement downhill, held in Wengen, Switzerland, on January 11th.
Adelboden slalom results and analysis of the fastest three and North Americans
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