Four downhill skiers have come together in Ski Austria’s WC1 training group, and together they will start the 2024/25 World Cup season. The fact that no individual athlete from this group is in the foreground is intentional: the fact that the Austrian speed skiers are under almost superhuman pressure had become a natural state in the Alpine republic. Despite this, or perhaps precisely because of it, the performances of recent winters have not lived up to expectations. In order to break out of this negative spiral, the athletes are taking a new approach this year – Vincent Kriechmayr, Stefan Babinsky, Raphael Haaser and Daniel Hemetsberger form a team that ideally is more than the sum of its parts. And if the plan works out, at least one athlete, perhaps more, will be able to reap the rewards of their joint efforts at the 48th Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
Daniel Hemetsberger, Stefan Babinsky, Vincent Kriechmayr (from left).
