ADELBODEN, Switzerland (AP) — With start number 38, Johannes Strolz won a World Cup slalom on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Austrian finished 10th, his best career result in more than eight years of World Cup racing. As the son of an Olympic champion, Strolz sat in tears in the seat of the arrival area guide, watching how his rivals did not fulfill his time.
The leader of the first lap, Manuel Feller, bowed theatrically into the finish zone to greet his unpopular compatriot after his time was 0.17 seconds behind second place.
Strolz is not even an official member of the strong Austrian team this season and is preparing his own skis for the races without the help of a technician.
“Even when I was kicked out of the team, I had support in the fall as we prepared for the season,” he said. “So many coaches on the team still believed in me.”
The German Linus Strasser was third with a gap of 0.29. Strasser had been 14th faster in a very competitive first lap in the morning when Strolz finished seventh in a short time in good weather on the historic Chuesnisbärgli hill in Adelboden.
“I was lucky in the first lap with the sight,” admitted Strolz, who had to get 0.17 in the second lap, which was held under the regularly falling snow. “Eventually it all came together.”
Strolz’s father Hubert won gold in the combined and silver in the giant slalom at the Olympic Games in Calgary.
His chance for victory on Sunday opened when three favorites could not finish the first round before the race.
World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag, named to carry the number 1, slipped four goals before the end and the number 3, Clement Noël, came out of his race early.
A fall by Kristoffer Jakobsen, who is at the top of the slalom with Foss-Solevaag, turned him around and sent him into a structure of the finish line.
Strolz climbed directly to third place in the slalom ranking with the 100 race points he won for the surprise victory.
The result had little effect on the overall standings of the World Cup, as the reigning champion Alexis Pinturault could not finish his second round, having finished fifth in the morning. He stayed behind Marco Odermatt, who won the giant slalom on Saturday, but skipped the slaloms, far from fourth in the overall standings.
Feller was a finalist for the second day in a row, but seemed equally happy that Strolz had won.
“He’s had some pretty tough times over the last few years,” Feller said, describing Strolz as “a guy (who) deserves (more) than (me).”
With five more slalom races on world cup before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing in February. 4, Strolz has time to confirm the form of victory on Sunday and try to win the selection in the alpine skiing miracle team.
The Olympic slalom champion, Guiliano Razzoli, finished in ninth place to give the 37-year-old Italian a third consecutive top-10 place, which heralds itself as a rebound season.
With starting number 43, the American Luke Winters took 10th place, his best career result, only 0.77 behind Strolz.