Herminator's Hat Trick
Hermann achieved a hat-trick by winning the opening race of the season for the 3rd time in a row. He won here for the first time two years ago and dominated the opening glacier race at Tignes last year. This is his 10th major success in GS including his Olympic win at Nagano.

He hasn't won a GS since Todtnau, Germany, last February, but that didn't stop him from taking the GS World Cup title last season in Bormio, Italy.

He was emotional at the finish line after finding out he won despite some major errors in the second run. Austrian fans cheered as he kissed the snow before rolling on his back with his arms splayed out.

"It's always something special to win in Austria," Maier admitted afterwards. "I wanted to do well in front of the members of my fan club but I didn't dare dream about such a great result today," he added with a grin.

"[Hermann] has such great experience that he doesn't need so much on-snow training anymore."

"I have only trained six days in GS because I focused on the speed events in Portillo [Chile} last August," Hermann said about summer training. "This fall, the weather was not so good on the glaciers. It's more difficult to train downhill and super G than GS so I wanted take advantage of the great conditions in Chile. I was not really nervous before this race and I had a solid and clean first run."

"I was really pleased to do so well this morning and I wanted to defend this lead. Yet I put more extra pressure on myself this afternoon and made more mistakes. The conditions were more challenging too," he continued.

Maier says it's tough to remain at the top over several winters. So far, he doesn't know whether his main focus will be on the St. Anton World Championships or on the World Cup. The upcoming North American events should help him decide which will be his bigger priority.

Hermann's entourage was not as surprised by his latest achievement. His physical trainer Heinrich Bergmüller said in the past weeks that he was in better condition than ever before. "He has such great experience that he doesn't need so much on-snow training anymore," he said. "He has worked hard since last May, even with some boxing, to stay in good shape."

"I wouldn't mind improving my records this winter, but I don't really think about it for the moment," added Hermann. "I just want to remain healthy and focus on the next race."

That will be in three weeks in Utah's Park City on the new Olympic course.

— Patrick Lang, World Cup Correspondent

Also this weekend: Women's GS | Rettenback Glacier Report

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