Downhill Skiing World Championships in Courchevel (France), men's slalom, 19 February 2023. Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen.
Courchevel (France) – Norwegian skier Henrik Kristoffersen became world champion in slalom for the first time. Thanks to a successful second round, the three-time winner of the World Cup unexpectedly beat the second AJ Ginnis by 20 hundredths of a second, who won the first ever valuable metal from the World Cup for Greece. The bronze went to the Italian Alex Vinatzer, who was another eighteen hundredths behind. Filip Forejtek, the only Czech representative at the start, finished in 43rd place.
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Photogallery: WC in downhill skiing 2023
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Twenty-eight-year-old Kristoffersen won the second world champion title in his career, four years ago he also succeeded in the giant slalom. The Olympic silver medalist from PyeongChang and bronze slalom runner from the Sochi Games succeeded despite an uneventful first round, after which he was only sixteenth with a deficit of 91 hundredths of a second to the Austrian Manuel Feller.
Feller, however, did not hold the position, finishing only 21st. time of the second lap and dropped to seventh place, which he shared with Norwegian World Cup event leader Lucas Braathen. The Austrians have not won a single gold medal at the World Championships, the last time this happened 36 years ago in Crans Montana.
Kristoffersen presented himself with an aggressive drive from the start of the second lap and drove the fastest final section of the track ever. At the finish line, he gradually watched as his opponents could not compete with his time of 51.66 seconds, and he could celebrate after Feller reached the finish line. “I knew it was the track for me,” said the Norwegian skier.
Ginnis was also happy, although he was only twelfth in the second round, but thanks to the lead from the first race, he kept the silver position . By winning the silver, he followed up on the second place from the last SP race in Chamonix. Defending champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag from Norway dropped from fifth to 19th place after an unsuccessful second round.
Norwegians became the most successful country in the number of medals at the World Championships with nine precious metals. But the most triumphs were collected by the Swiss, who won three gold medals.
Results of the World Downhill Skiing Championship
Men – slalom:
1. Kristoffersen (Nor.) 1:39.50 (47.84+51.66), 2. Ginnis (Greece) -0.20 (47.06+52.64), 3. Vintatzer (It.) -0 .38 (47.37+52.51), 4. Noël (Fr.) -0.41 (47.57+52.34), 5. Holzmann (German) -0.62 (47.93+52 ,19), 6. Schwarz (Austria) -0.65 (47.64+52.51), … 43. Forejtek (Czech Republic) -5.31 (52.18+56.97).
