Czech Jan Zabystřan on the super giant slalom course during the combined race at the World Downhill Skiing Championships in Courchevel, France on February 7, 2023.
Courchevel (France) – Czech skier Jan Zabystřan did not repeat last year's ninth place from Cortina d'Ampezzo in the combined event at the world championship in Courchevel. He did not finish the slalom, in which he could have improved. Gold went to local native Alexis Pinturault, who held onto the lead from the super-G to beat defending champion Marc Schwarz of Austria by one-tenth of a second in the aggregate. Third came another Austrian, Raphael Haaser, who imitated Monday's bronze success of his sister Ricarda.
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Photogallery: WC in downhill skiing 2023
Zabystřan finished twenty-second in the combined supergiant slalom, but entered the second part with a starting time of fourteenth after the withdrawal of a number of skiers. For the first time in his life, he started in the super giant slalom with number one and was satisfied with how he handled it. “I had a good ride in the Super-G. In the end, it turned out pretty well. For sure, if I had been somewhere in the back, I would have pushed it harder, because I could see that there was no problem,” he said in a recording for the media.
He could have attacked the top ten, but in the slalom after the second interval, he dragged his ski behind one of the goals and fell out. “I drove the top above my expectations. Unfortunately, I was a little late in a few gates, so I had to correct it by being closer to the gates and I caught the point guard,” he explained. “It's a shame, because in reality it was completely fine for seventh, eighth place. I'm certainly sorry, it could have been a nice result,” he added. Another thirteen skiers were unable to pass the very complicated gates.
World champion Pinturault was also missing, and in the second half he tried his best to stay on the track. He was helped to the gold, which he followed up on the triumph from the 2019 World Cup, by Schwarz's hesitation in the extremely overmatched goals just before the finish line. At the last split, the Austrian led by three-tenths of a second, but lost four-tenths of a second with a slow finish. The men in the first two places thus swapped the order from last year's WC in Italy.
Pinturault returned to the top after a period when he tried in vain to follow up on the 2020/2021 season of life decorated with an overall triumph in the World Cup. In the current year of the SP, he was on the podium only once. “It's amazing. Especially after the problems at the beginning of the winter, it's really great to be here,” he rejoiced on the website of the international federation FIS.
He laid the foundation for the title with a successful super giant slalom. “I was trying to attack. I was moving on the edge, but always on the right side of my limits, so I was able to ride it without making any big mistakes, which was the main goal,” he boasted. In the slalom, he had a perfect course with starting number one. “I think I didn't do a great slalom, but I did a good slalom. Especially with the number one because it's really hard to know when you can lean into it and when you have to control it a little bit more,” he recounted.
Schwarz was satisfied with the silver. “The slalom was very difficult today, especially the final passage. It was a lot of turns and a lot of combinations. I made a mistake there, but that's part of this sport. I'm happy for the silver medal,” he said.
Neither in third place, nothing changed after the super-G. Haaser had the sixth time in the slalom and easily defended the bronze medal with a loss of 44 hundredths to the winning Pinturault. For the twenty-five-year-old Austrian, today's race was the first at the World Cup. He made his debut at a major event last year at the Beijing Olympics, where he finished seventh.
The Olympic champion in this discipline, Johannes Strolz from Austria, did not succeed, he took a big loss in the super giant slalom and then did not finish the slalom.
Results of the World Championships in downhill skiing
Men – combined: 1. Pinturault (Fr.) 1:53.31 (1:08.25+45.06), 2. Schwarz -0.10 (1:08.31+45.10), 3. Haaser (both Austria) – 0.44 (1:08.39+45.36), 4. Radamus (USA) -0.69 (1:08.84+45.16), 5. McGrath (Nor.) -0.72 (1 :09.50+44.53) , 6. Meillard (Switzerland) -1.20 (1:09.59+44.92), …Zabystřan (Czech Republic) did not finish the slalom.
