Adelboden's giant slalom race, one of the most traditional stages on the World Cup tour, was more than just a normal alpine competition this year - it was a true event after the decision of Austria's Hermann Maier to return to his beloved activity, more than five hundred days after a horrendous motorbike crash which almost cost him his life and his legs.

While the usual favorites as America's Bode Miller, Switzerland's Michael von Grünigen, Austria's Stephan Eberharter or last year's winner Didier Cuche, also from Switzerland, fought for more glory and some cash from the organizers and their personal sponsors, the 30-year-old Maier competed in his own race against odds and destiny.

Maier is trying to achieve a remarkable comeback 675 days after his last race, a giant slalom during the 2001 Finals in Sweden's Are which he won by over a second.

It was his thirteenth victory of the season and one could have felt that the triple Overall World Cup champion reached his summit that very day in equaling the victories record set in the 1970's by Sweden's skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark, one of the all-time-great of the "White Circus".

It may be true - Maier himself has doubts about his chances to ever return at his best after his grueling crash on August 24th 2001 when he was hit in Altenmarkt by a inattentive German driver while riding back home in the early evening after training in the nearby Obertauern Olympic center.

While the other top-champions mostly aim to reach the podium, score a maximum of World Cup points or qualify for the coming World Championships in St Moritz, the 30-year-old skier from Flachau, south of Salzburg, would already be happy with a single point - quite an irony and a modest goal for the former "Herminator" unbeaten on Adelboden's treacherous course where he dominated three consecutive races in 1998, 1999 and 2001.

Modesty never fit with Hermann Maier in his greatest seasons when he crushed his rivals, accumulating impressive victories in downhill, Super-G and giant slalom. Many skiers even considered him as arrogant and brash in his demonstrative celebrations or in his comments about other skiers.

In fact, the former bricklayer and ski instructor was quite proud of his achievements when the Austrian Federation finally qualified him within the National Team when he was already 24 after having ignored him for several years!

From February 1997 to March 2001, Maier amassed forty World Cup victories, four gold medals at Olympics and World Championships, three Overall World Cup titles and almost a dozen World Cup points titles in different disciplines.

He was first called "The Herminator" in February 1998 after clinching two Olympic gold medals in Super-G and giant slalom only a few days after miraculously surviving a horrible crash in downhill. The photo of his high flight in the air became one of the most famous shots on the sports market.

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— MountainZone.com staff