 |  |  | |
 |  | ||
 |  |  | |
 | |||
 |  |  | ||||||||
| |
Sestriere, Italy — March 13, 2004
Two-time Olympian Sarah Schleper (Vail, CO) surprised herself and equaled the best result of her career Saturday, powering through tricky snowfall and a sore back to finish second in slalom at World Cup Finals. Austrian Marlies Schild won and Anja Paerson of Sweden clinched the overall title while Kristina Koznick (Eagan, MN) was 12th and Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, WY) 13th.
Schild won in 1:41.83 and Schleper's two-run time was 1:42.03. Schleper was fifth in the first run on the Agnelli run, which will be the 2006 Olympic slalom hill, and nailed the top of the second course for her best result in more than three years. (She had been second in Sestriere during the 2001 season.) "I didn't think I was gonna be so fast today but I watched some video [Friday] night of the guys that we got from [Men's SL/GS Head Coach] Mike Morin and it was good. I'm a visual person," Schleper said, "and it was very visual. Since I haven't been able to train a lot because of my back, this was excellent. I'm still a little surprised I did so well."
"Skeptical" about returning, but... She was at a loss to explain her success in Sestriere, but Schleper said she was "psyched" to do well on the 2006 Olympic run. "Now I can just go for the victory in 2006," she said. Her last race was Feb. 8 when she was fourth in a slalom in Zwiesel, Germany; the previous day she was fifth in a giant slalom. Her strong final run surprised her "because I didn't feel too good on the course," she said. "It was a technical course across the hill [plenty of turns] and it threw off my timing, but I think everyone probably felt that way," she added. She heaped praise on wax tech John Mulligan "for giving me fast skis. He always does such a good job for me," Schleper said.
Despite light snow and some winds, Schleper said conditions "held up great. They injected it [with water, which freezes and stabilizes the snow] and I didn't notice any chatter or anything. It was hard but not too slick on the second run. In the start, I thought, 'Oooooh, it's foggy - but that's okay because I'm gonna attack in the fog' and that's what I did."
Head coach says the podium wait's over About four inches of snow fell during the night but organizers did a strong job in preparing the course. "We had some fog and flat light," Riml explained, "but they can't control that. They did a super job with what they could control." Koznick, he said, is still on the rebound from an early season hip injury which reduced her training and has troubled her through much of the winter. "She's still missing some of the confidence she needs to let it go like Koz can," Riml said, "but that will come. And Resi, it was great, too. Her first year on the World Cup fulltime and she ends up 21st. She took the steep well but then she made a little mistake at the bottom...but, still, this has been such a good year for her." He also pointed to Kaylin Richardson (Edina, MN) and Lauren Ross (Stowe, VT), who finished 1-2 in the Nor Am slalom standings this week as adding to the tech team's depth for the 2005 season. "They're coming along, too, so all these girls are giving the team depth. It's not just one girl or two any more." Paerson had won 10 races this season and added the overall title to her slalom and GS championships. With one race left (worth 100 points), she's 117 points ahead of Renate Goetschl of Austria.
WOMEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
1. Marlies Schild, Austria, 1:41.82
12. Kristina Koznick, Eagan, Minn., 1:42.96
— Courtesy of US Ski Team |
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|