Tomi Hänninen / image images / Newspix24
Great, 80 kilos of goulash! The family is happy (Petra Vlhova and her main prize, 11/21/2021)
If you approach the Finnish winter sports resort Levi by car, you drive long distances on gravel roads. Occasionally reindeer block the road. When you arrive in Levi, you feel like you are in a different world. Architectural alpine kitsch mixes with fast-food restaurants, Santa’s sledges are next to après-ski bars.
Levi is located in the traditional settlement area of the Sámi, the indigenous people of the north of Europe. All the places here also have Sami names. Except Levi. As a Sámi once said: “Levi is not a real place. This is something else.”
World Cup slaloms still take place here. Or maybe because of that. The first were held 17 years ago. For 15 years they have been scheduled for November, at the beginning of the season. The northern location does not guarantee enough snow, but enough cold nights to produce it artificially.
The winners of the Levi slalom will receive a reindeer. The eight-time overall World Cup winner Marcel Hirscher owns three of them. Their names are Ferdl, Leo and Mr. Snow. Hirscher ended his career two years ago. It is said that he visits the animals from time to time.
In the 2020/21 season there was a change in the program due to the corona pandemic. Instead of one men’s and one women’s slalom, two women’s races were held. One tried to separate the “bubbles” of men and women as well as possible. The program change was retained this year as well. You can no longer see that with the bubbles so closely, but the International Ski Federation FIS is now also climate-conscious. More races by the same athletes in one place means less travel, that’s good.
The slaloms of the 2021/22 season took place last weekend. There were no surprises at the top. Last year’s overall World Cup winner, Petra Vlhova, won twice ahead of US superstar Mikaela Shiffrin. The Austrian Katharina Liensberger, surprisingly winner of the Slalom World Cup last year, fell short of expectations with ranks six and eight.
The weekend went well from the point of view of the German Ski Association. 30-year-old Lena Dürr (SV Germering) came third on both days. In view of the dominance of Vlhova and Shiffrin, Dürr was even declared Levi’s “secret ski queen” by the online platform skiweltcup.tv. In January 2013 she had already surprised. Jumped in as a substitute runner for Viktoria Rebensburg, she won a World Cup parallel race in Moscow, a so-called “City Event”. Until last weekend, it was Dürr’s only podium finish in the World Cup.
Emma Aicher (SC Mahlstetten), who celebrated her 18th birthday just a few days ago, put in an impressive test of talent. Aicher has only started for the DSV since 2020. Because of her Swedish mother, she went through the junior squad of the Swedish Ski Association. It was the better training opportunities in the Alps that convinced her to change associations. On Saturday she finished 14th. On Sunday, after a failed second run, she dropped from 13th to 23rd, but again won World Cup points. Jessica Hilzinger (SC Oberstdorf) also scored twice with 25th place on Saturday and 22nd place on Sunday. Andrea Filser (SV Wildsteig) finished 18th on Sunday.
The women’s ski world cup will continue next weekend with a slalom and giant slalom in Killington, USA. The men will contest two downhill runs and a Super-G in Lake Louise (Canada).
