Sochi Form Guide: Worley Flies in Giant Slalom
Reigning world giant slalom champion Tessa Worley of France ended a 22-month wait for World Cup gold, giving the French skier a valuable boost with less than two months to go until the Sochi Olympics.
Also in Alpine skiing, Austria celebrated wins for slalom star Marcel Hirscher and veteran Mario Matt, while tiny Liechtenstein’s Olympic hope Tina Weirather impressed in super G.
Elsewhere, the United States dominated bobsled and skeleton, and ski jumping star Thomas Morgenstern was hospitalized after a nasty fall.
Alpine skiing
Worley shot down the St Moritz course to beat Sweden’s Jessica Lindell-Vikarby, with reigning overall World Cup champion Tina Maze in third, her best result of the 2013-14 season so far.
"Winning today is a relief, it feels so good", the French-Australian Worley said on the FIS website. "I gives me some confidence going into next weeks' races in France. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be able to ski with less pressure now and give it all on the course."
At the February 7-23 Sochi Olympics, Worley will be aiming to be the first French woman to win an Alpine medal since Laure Pequegnot’s slalom silver and Carole Montillet’s downhill gold at Salt Lake City 2002.
Worley’s win Sunday came a day after Weirather took her second career win in the women’s super G ahead of Sweden’s Katja Kling and Austria’s Anna Fenninger.
Liechtenstein, a country of just 36,000 people, has not won an Olympic medal since 1988, but Weirather has pedigree - members of her family have won six of the nine medals in the nation’s history.
Austria dominated the men’s Alpine skiing events at the weekend, with overall World Cup champion Hirscher taking his second win of the new season in the giant slalom in Val d’Isere, France, on Sunday.
A day earlier, the 34-year-old Matt took Saturday’s slalom to match the Austrian record of 14 slalom wins held by the great Benjamin Raich.
Freestyle skiing
A hectic weekend spanning three countries and two continents saw some wins for established names and a few up-and-comers.
Vancouver 2010 Olympic women’s moguls champion Hannah Kearney came out on top in the opening state of her season in Ruka, Finland, beating Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe into second place, with Aiko Uemura of Japan third.
Defending men’s Olympic champion Alexandre Bilodeau could not match Kearney’s feat, coming second in the men’s moguls behind fellow Canadian Mikael Kingsbury.
In ski cross at Val Thorens, France, Austria’s Andreas Matt took men’s World Cup gold, while Katrin Mueller of Switzerland won the women’s event.
Aerials took place in Beijing with two wins for the hosts - Liu Zhongqing in the men’s event and Vancouver silver medalist Li Nina among the women.
Cross-country skiing
Triple Olympic champion Marit Bjoergen of Norway dominated the weekend’s action, winning the women’s 15km and sprint in Davos, Switzerland - the latter by a wafer-thin 0.01 seconds from American Kikkan Randal.
There was more Norwegian success with a win for Anders Gloesen in the men’s sprint, while only Frenchman Maurice Manificat stopped a Norwegian sweep by taking gold in the 30km on Saturday.
Ski jumping
Double Olympic gold medalist Thomas Morgenstern’s Sochi prospects took a heavy blow Sunday when a nasty fall on landing left him in hospital with reported facial injuries.
Morgenstern won the first competition of a two-day World Cup double-header in Germany, but came to grief in the second event when he landed with his skis touching and crashed onto his head. In a statement, he likened the impact to a punch from boxing champions Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.
Morgenstern’s fall opened the way for Poland’s Kamil Stoch, second on Saturday, to win Sunday’s event.
Nordic combined
The undisputed Olympic favorite in the Nordic combined is Germany’s Eric Frenzel, now with three World Cup wins under his belt this season.
Frenzel beat Norway’s Haavard Klementsen into second place Sunday in Ramsau am Dachstein, overtaking Klementsen in the cross-country skiing after Klementsen had won the ski jumping section. Third place went to another Norwegian, Mikko Kokslien.
In Saturday’s team event, there was complete Norwegian dominance with its two teams first and second. Italy took bronze.
Snowboard
With a double World Cup parallel slalom round in Italy, there were plenty of winners - Austria’s Anton Unterkofler and France’s Sylvain Dufour in the men’s events, and Switzerland’s Patricia Kummer and Canada’s Caroline Calve among the women.
Only two athletes managed to medal twice - Russia’s Ekaterina Tudegesheva left with a silver and a bronze, while there were two bronzes for Austria’s Lukas Mathies.
Biathlon
For years outshone by his older brother Tarjei, Norway’s Johannes Boe joined biathlon’s elite with a dominant weekend in France, taking the first two senior World Cup wins of his career.
Johannes Boe won the sprint and pursuit in a stunning weekend, saying: "I never felt the pressure. I think that is why I was so good on the shooting range and on the tracks," in a statement on the IBU website.
There was also a first individual World Cup win for Ukraine’s Valj Semerenko in the pursuit, a personal milestone for another athlete long in the shadow of a famous sibling, in her case eight-time winner Vita.
Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin emerged as an unexpected contender for Olympic gold, winning the sprint, in which Valj Semerenko was third.
Hockey
Olympic host city Sochi is gearing up for the final international tournament before the Olympics, a round of the Euro Hockey Tour, a four-nation competition featuring players outside the NHL.
Ex-New Jersey Devils wing Ilya Kovalchuk stars for host team Russia at the December 19-22 event.
Bobsled and skeleton
The U.S. was the undisputed champion of World Cup stage three in Lake Placid, winning two two-man bob events, two four-man bob events, two men’s skeleton events and one women’s skeleton race.
Canada’s reigning Olympic champion two-women bob crew of Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse took a gold medal, while Britain’s Elizabeth Yarnold stopped complete U.S. dominance of the skeleton, taking a win Sunday.
Curling
At the final pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Fussen, Germany, the U.S. and Germany secured places in Sochi. China and Japan complete the women’s lineup.
Russian Swimmers Break World Record in Mixed Relay
Russia's mixed relay team has set a new world record in the 4x50m freestyle race at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Herning, Denmark.
The quartet of Sergei Fesikov, Vladimir Morozov, Rozaliya Nasretdinova and Veronika Popova clocked 1:29.53 minutes late Saturday, an improvement of 0.08 seconds on the previous best set by the Australians last month.
Italy claimed silver, 0.73 seconds down on Russia, while the Netherlands was third.
This was the fourth world record of the meet, which finishes Sunday, with three of them bagged by the Russians. Yulia Efimova first toppled the 200m breaststroke mark on Friday and later that day helped Russian mixed medley team in their record-breaking 4x50m relay.
For Morozov, 21, this was his fifth victory in Denmark, as he also triumphed at 50m and 100m freestyle plus two other relay races.
"The gold at the 100m was the most difficult for me," Morozov told R-Sport. "I can’t say that any of these medals surprised me or was unexpected. I’m swimming all the relays and it’s not hard for me, moreover they are all 4x50 meters."
Russia leads the overall medal table for the first time since 2008, winning nine gold medals, one silver and three bronze.
Gonchar Hopes to Make History at Sochi Olympics
Dallas Start defenseman Sergei Gonchar is hoping to become the first Russian hockey player to feature at five Olympic Games, he told R-Sport on Monday.
The 39-year-old has been an integral part of the Russian Olympic roster since 1998, winning silver medals in Nagano and bronze in Salt Lake City.
"I couldn’t imagine that I will have a chance to participate in such a number of Olympic tournaments," Gonchar said. "I’m already happy that I played at four Olympic Games, but I hope to go to a fifth."
Gonchar, who has recently entered the top 100 NHL players of all time by making 1207 appearances, added he hoped Detroit Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk would be captain for the Olympic tournament.
"If I get such an honor, then I’ll take it with pleasure, but I think there are more worthy guys," he said. "I think Pasha Datsyuk is the most obvious candidate, he is an experienced player who leads the team."
Russia coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov must submit his Olympics roster to the International Ice Hockey Federation by January 7.
In Sochi, four-time world champion Russia is under great pressure to win gold following Vancouver 2010 failure, when the team was pounded 7-3 by Canada in the quarterfinal.
Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.
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