Kathi Liensberger, a worthy world champion

Cortina d’Ampezzo – To date, five races have been held in the 2020/21 Slalom Ski World Cup season.  The  Austrian Katharina Liensberger showed her driving class with three second and three third places. With 360 points she is 40 points behind the Slovak Petra Vlhová in the discipline ranking. Insiders suspected that the lady from the country would strike back in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Lo and behold: In the parallel race she won the 100th ÖSV World Championship gold medal in history.  The  athlete, born in 1997 from the westernmost state of Austria, was as fast as the Italian Marta Bassino. For Liensberger it was the first individual medal in world title competitions after she won the silver medal with the red-white-red team in Åre two years ago.

But the lady from the country wanted more. Liensberger won the bronze medal in the giant slalom, before she left everyone behind in the slalom and took the gold one-second ahead of Vlhová.

 The  American Mikaela Shiffrin, the winner of the last four World Cup slaloms, had to be satisfied with the bronze medal.

Anyone who knows Liensberger knows that she hasn’t had enough yet.

 The  next tasks are due. And it is quite possible that she will transfer her very good shape to everyday World Cup life and celebrate her first victory there. To top it off, you could aim for winning the small crystal ball and the discipline score in the goal run. In any case, the likeable Austrian is a dignified slalom world champion.

Report for skiweltcup.tv: Andreas Raffeiner