Alpine Skiing Preview

Austrian Men May Medal in Every Alpine Event

The history of great Austrian men's ski racers is incredible. This tiny country seems to have the genetic codes of fast skiers. Legends like Toni Sailer, Karl Schranz and Franz Klammer helped breed a litany of current stars. For the past several seasons, Austrians have again been at the top of men's World Cup ski racing, and now emerges a new crop of elite athletes.

How powerful are they? The Austrian men have won 18 of 23 World Cup races this season (that's 78%).

Tops on the list is Hermann Maier, of Flachau, who has won almost every race he has entered this season. Maier, like former Austrian star Toni Sailer, has a shot at three gold medals in Nagano.

Sykora also Bound for Gold

Sykora

Last season's top Austrian excelled in only one event — slalom. Twenty-nine-year-old Thomas Sykora blew away the competition with five victories, and a total of seven podiums on his way to winning the World Cup slalom title. When asked why he was so successful, Sykora said, "don't think, just ski!" Sage words for those who often think too much and don't win. Sykora is off to a more "normal" start this season, with only one victory, and is second in the slalom standings, behind his teammate Thomas Stangassinger.

Stangassinger

Stangassinger, at 32, is one of the "old men" on the circuit...and slalom is not known as an old man's event. Yet he is the defending Olympic champion, and was known last season as "Mr. Second Place" for occupying that step on the podium in five races. This season, Stangassinger has cranked it up a notch, including recent wins in Veysonnaz, and Kitzbuehl, just in time to go for two-in-a-row in the Winter Games. He also won the first slalom in Park City last November. Either of the two "Tommy's" should win the gold.

More Depth as Speeds Increase

Mayer

While Maier is "the man" in Giant Slalom and Super G, a host of other Austrians will probably be in the silver and bronze medal positions. In GS, Christian Mayer has again started to show his extensive talent. The 26-year-old veteran was a bronze medalist in the 1994 Winter Games, but his love of "the good life" has hurt his performance in recent years. This season, Mayer has won GS races in Kranjska Gora and Alta Badia, and could finally have the focus to shoot for another medal. Hans Knauss is another of the young talented all-arounders with a shot at the GS.

Maier

In Super G — gee whiz, there's that Maier guy again...definitely at the top of the list.

Behind him is Knauss, who has won two events in his career. But now we are getting into the downhill bunch, a deep well of talent. Take Josef Strobl, he has won three Super Gs in the past year and been on several podiums. Strobl is coming back from various injuries, but scored a respectable third in the recent Kitzbuhel downhill.

Another solid contender in Andreas Schifferer who had two Super G podiums last season, and has won three downhills this season. Andy leads the World Cup downhill standings, just in front of his buddy Hermann Maier (that name again!)

Men's Downhill Should be 1-2-3 Austria
Josef Strobl will be hot in the downhill, but so will Fritz Strobl (no relation) who won two speed events last season and has been close this go round. And lest we forget, "Fat Porkleeb" — the not-so-fond nickname of Patrick Ortlieb, who carries a pretty good sized gut these days. But the 26-year-old has won Downhill Olympic gold and World gold — and always seems to do well on short, flat courses like Nagano.

And if that's not enough — there's 33-year-old Gunther Mader. Mader might not even make the Olympic team, in spite of 13 World Cup victories, Olympic and world medals...now that's tough. The USA would love that problem. A ski team so deep that a future "hall of famer" doesn't make the cut. Don't be too surprised if team Austria brings home all the hardware in men's ski racing at the Winter Olympics in Nagano.

— Eric Moffitt, Mountain Zone Correspondent