Men's Slalom
Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, the surprising winner in today's slalom, completed another weekend sweep for the impressive Austrian ski team. In an aggressive come-from-behind success, Schoenfelder beat Norway's Kjetil Aamodt, the leader in the slalom World Cup standings, by 9/100 of a second. Veteran Ole Kristian Furuseth (NOR) was 3rd at 13/100.

	Schoenfelder

The 22-year-old Schoenfelder, 9th after the first leg, achieved an outstanding second run down the steep slalom slope at this Black Forest resort to score the powerful Austrian squad's sixteenth success this season. For the first time, Schoenfelder used a short ski of 1.70m, produced last week by Atomic and never before used in racing. The "Red-and-Whites" now have six consecutive World Cup wins since Kitzbühel. With fifteen events left, they are on course to improve their record of 25 wins in 37 races from a single season.

"For sure, it was a nice surprise for me," said the Austrian who had never before reached the podium in a World Cup race. His best result before Sunday was a 4th place last year in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora. "I believed in my chances to reach the podium this winter because I have been very consistent since the start of the season," he added.

Austrian Mario Matt, the winner from Kitzbühel, confirmed his talent by taking a strong 4th place, ahead of Slovenia's Matjaz Vrhovnik and Germany's Markus Eberle, who finished with a promising 3rd in the first run. Eberle beat Austria's "Wonderboy" Benjamin Raich, 2nd in the first leg, by 4/100. On Saturday, Raich was leading after the first GS run, but he went down to 5th place in the end of that race, dominated by Hermann Maier.

"For sure, it was a nice surprise for me. I believed in my chances to reach the podium this winter because I have been very consistent since the start of the season...." — Rainer Schoenfelder (AUT)

Erik Schlopy was once more the only US skier to qualify for the second run — and he finished last again after having some troubles in the second run, losing over 10 seconds on the winner. His American teammates were not able to handle the grueling snow conditions in the first leg.

Aamodt led after the first run, but lost almost a full second on Schoenfelder in the second leg. He was still in the lead at the intermediate time, but gave away the race after tumbling into a rut only a few meters before the finish line.

"It is really tough to lose a slalom again on the second leg after leading," said Aamodt. "I felt pretty relaxed during the competition, despite the poor course conditions. I felt confident to win that race but I had this problem at the end of that second run. It's quite frustrating."

The 1994 Overall World Cup winner consolidated his lead in the slalom World Cup standings since his closest rivals all finished behind him. Yet he remains a distant second to Hermann Maier in the Overall standings. "The Herminator" still has a strong 424-point lead over Aamodt, who now wants to focus on his slalom and try to win his first Crystal Globe since his Overall victory in 1994.

	Aamodt

"Hermann is out of reach for all of us, he is too strong this winter," Aamodt said. "I would be very happy to win a small World Cup trophy again. But I don't give up my hopes to clinch the big one again in the future!"

This is the fourth time this season that the skier from Oslo reached the podium in slalom — and his chance to win the slalom title is quite strong with three more races to go in that event. He now has a 69-point advance on Matjaz Vhrovnik.

"I owe my strong results in that specialty to the new, shorter racing skis produced in December by Nordica," Aamodt explained. "Furuseth and myself decided to go for a medium-short model, but we keep on checking and testing. They turn much better and made my life easier since I don't have so much time to train this event."

The aggressive Schoenfelder, from the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, had an average first run which left him 89/100 of a second behind the leader. But on the afternoon leg, held in warm, spring-like conditions, he was able to make the best of the snow, which then worsened for the leaders from the first run.

"It was good for me that the race-jury decided to reverse the top-15 in the second run, instead of the top-30 as usual," said Schoenfelder. "The course was not too damaged when I started and I took a lot of risks to improve my position. I was aiming for the top-5 this time so I'm delighted by this success. I had nothing to lose."

Schoenfelder also said that his new carver skies had played a big role in his success. They are some 20cm shorter than what he's used to, but he had no problem adapting his technique. He is the latest surprise from Austria's rich stable of young talents. Two weeks ago 20-year-old newcomer Mario Matt upset all the favorites in only his third World Cup race, winning the treacherous slalom in Kitzbühel. Matt, 12th after the first leg, finished 4th with a brilliant second run that was even faster than Schoenfelder's impressive second run. Switzerland's Didier Plaschy was the only top specialist who failed to end this seventh slalom of the season. He skied out in the second run.

The next men's events will take place this coming weekend in Austria's St. Anton. A downhill and a super G are planned in the prestigious resort, which will host the Ski World Championships in February 2001. It's difficult to imagine that the Austrian will not dominate the field once more.

— Patrick Lang, MountainZone.com Correspondent