ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP
An Austrian tradition
Men's Slalom - Saturday 27 January
1. Jens Byggmark (Sweden) -1:43.74
2. Mario Matt (Austria) -1:44.61
3. Alois Vogl (Germany) -1:45.22
Men's Slalom - Sunday 28 January
1. Jens Byggmark (Sweden) -1:44.20
2. Mario Matt (Austria) -1:44.23
3. Manfred Moelgg (Italy) -1:44.25
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
In the third week of January each year, the small town of Kitzbiihel in the heart of the
Austrian Alps comes alive. The local population of only 7,000 welcomes over 100,000
visitors from around the world for the Hahnenkamm Race, the number-one ski event of the
Austrian winter season. Hotels are booked solid months in advance, Kitzbühei's restaurants
and pubs are packed all weekend long and the now world-famous ski slopes - the "Streif"
and "Ganslern" - play host to the world's skiing elite for three days of sensational action.
Despite unseasonably warm weather across the European Alps, this small Tyrolean town
managed to once again put on a great show with a spectacular weekend of racing. World of
Heineken strapped on its skis and headed to the slopes to be part of the fun.
In the bright Austrian sun, a hushed silence falls upon the assembled crowd.
For a brief moment it is quiet, a cold winter breeze whistling through the
trees. The sky is a sharp blue, crystal clear as far as the eye can see. The air
is crisp, though there is no wind, only a gentle Alpine breeze. For a
moment, 900 metres above the earth, there is only sun, sky, snow and
silence.
And then SWOOSFI! The silence is broken as Jens Byggmark rockets by,
hurtling down the "Ganslern" at top speed. If you had blinked, you would
have missed him. The 25,000-strong crowd cheers the Swede on, a
resounding shout of approval rippling down the slope as Byggmark makes
his descent. After a vertical drop of nearly 200 metres, the 2007
Hahnenkamm Slalom champion crosses the finish line near the Kitzbiihel
town centre, claiming victory with a stunning time of 1:44.20.
Out. Bower. [((jOSSEf jj
woitcitp-punkics«.6t,r 0n 11 Au9ust 1966, the Alpine Ski World
Mit Gösser zur Cup was established, At the time, there
Ski-WM nach
Schweden! EÜ were no S'0'33' s*' competitions apart from
jü» the World Championships held every two
years and the Winter Olympic Games held
every four years. The vision of the Alpine
1 Ski World Cup founders was to establish an
annual ski tournament, offering world-class
competitors the chance to compete on an
^BBHH^^^BB all-round level. Forty years on, the Alpine
£Up bas become one of the
I sport's most international and highly
respected attractions.
The Alpine Ski World Cup is a circuit of competitions regulated by the
International Ski Federation. Around 30 race events are held at resorts
across Europe, Scandinavia, North America and East Asia.
Participants compete across four disciplines: slalom, giant slalom,
Super G and Downhill. For every race, points are awarded to the top 30
finishers: 100 points to the winner, 80 for second, 60 for third, down to 1
point for 30th place. The racer with the most points at the end of the
season in mid-March wins the tournament.
Many consider the World Cup to be a more valuable title than the
Olympics or the biannual World Championships, since it requires a
competitor to ski at an extremely high level in several disciplines
throughout the season and not just in one race.
This year marks the 67th International Hahnenkamm Race, an annual event
that was first staged on the "Streif" in January 1931. From 1967, this
prestigious three-day event was included in the annual circuit of Alpine Ski
World Cup races and is now the highlight of the tournament's global
calendar. Normally, the Hahnenkamm Race features three alpine disciplines;
the Super G, the Downhill and the Slalom. However, the 2007 winter season
has been anything but conventional, with ski resorts across Europe
suffering from a chronic shortage of snow due to the warmest weather in
decades. Despite valiant efforts to host a full schedule of races (which
included flying in snow using helicopters!) and a last minute snowfall earlier
in the week, the 2007 edition of the Hahnenkamm Race went ahead with a
reduced roster of events, featuring a slalom race on Saturday 27 January
and Sunday 28 January.
The weekend kicked off at 10:30am sharp with the first slalom, as some
of the biggest names in international skiing gathered at the top of the
legendary "Ganslern". Races in Kitzbiihel are not simply about amassing
points towards World Cup victory; winning the event itself and becoming
the traditional Hahnenkamm Champion is regarded as a significant honour
by the world's skiing elite.
In a spectacular display of speed and agility, Sweden's Jens Byggmark
won both of the weekend's slalom races, and was officially crowned the
2007 "Ganslern" Champion. Barely a snowflake's distance behind was
Austria's Mario Matt, offering his home crowd a powerful performance,
placing second in both the Saturday and Sunday races.
