SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — Camaraderie, unity, team spirit.
Those are the virtues of the successful Swiss men's ski team, a tightly knit group of friends on and off the slopes.
However, after yet another triumphant day and its third gold medal at the Alpine skiing world championships, one issue diverges opinions within the team.
Should the slalom skiers shave hair off their heads?
All racers and coaches of the speed team did just that after Franjo von Allmen won gold and Alexis Monney bronze in Sunday's downhill, and their baldness has become a symbol of their friendship.
So when Von Allmen paired with slalom skier Loic Meillard on Wednesday to win the new team combined event, and even lead a Swiss sweep of the podium, the downhill world champion was quick to bring it up.
"I hope the tech coaches have brought the right tools for (shaving the hair),” Von Allmen said.
But Meillard didn't feel like joining in this time.
“No, I leave that for the young guys, I still have to look nice on the next races,” said the allrounder, who is set to compete in the giant slalom and slalom this week.
Von Allmen and Meillard won the event 0.27 seconds ahead of silver medalists Monney and Tanguy Nef.
Stefan Rogentin and Marc Rochat were 0.43 behind and took bronze.
“Totally crazy, three Swiss teams on the podium is amazing,” said Meillard, who raced the slalom after Von Allmen had done the downhill some three hours earlier.
“I think everyone on the team is going crazy,” added Meillard, who has a silver and two bronzes from previous worlds.
After waiting for Nef to come down, Monney leaped over four rows of barriers and ran into the finish area to embrace his teammate to celebrate their silver medal as the six-man Swiss party got started.
“Incredibly cool, not just my performance but the performance of the entire Swiss team," Monney said. “To be on the podium with six Swiss skiers is something for history.”
Earlier Wednesday, Monney posted the fastest time in the downhill portion, giving his teammate Nef a slim advantage of 0.02 seconds over Meillard to start the slalom.
However, Meillard completed his slalom run nearly three-tenths of a second faster than Nef.
“I was way more nervous than when I race just for myself,” Meillard said. “You want to perform well, also for your teammate.”
Von Allmen struggled early in his downhill run when he came off the race line and skied into the soft snow outside the blue lines. He just managed to make the next gate and then made up almost all of the time he lost there.
“Incredibly cool,” said the 23-year-old Von Allmen, who is on a breakout season with four World Cup podiums, including a super-G victory in Wengen. “I am still satisfied with any top-10 result, that is still good for me in my second World Cup season. What is happening here, I can’t put it into words.”
It is the first Swiss sweep of a men’s podium at the worlds since Peter Mueller, Pirmin Zurbriggen and Karl Alpiger won gold, silver and bronze in the downhill at their home 1987 worlds in Crans Montana.
And underlining the strength of Swiss ski racing, the nation occupied the top-six spots in a downhill on the lower-ranked European Cup circuit on Wednesday.
It's the third gold medal for the Swiss team at these worlds after Marco Odermatt won the super-G and Von Allmen the downhill, while Monney took bronze in the downhill. Switzerland won silver in the mixed-team parallel event last week.
Odermatt skipped the team combined, opting to prepare for the giant slalom on Friday, but the Swiss star attended the race and joined in the celebrations.
The team combined entails one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom, with their two times added up to determine the final results.
The team combined will make its debut at next year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The American team of Ryan Cochran-Siegle in the downhill and Benjamin Ritchie in the slalom finished fourth and missed a medal by 0.26 seconds, a day after Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won gold in the women’s event.
Cochran-Siegle was on the brink of matching his mother, Barbara Cochran, who won a world championship medal in 1970 — a silver in slalom. They both are Olympic medalists: he won super-G silver in 2022, she took slalom gold 50 years earlier.
The next race is the women's giant slalom on Thursday, which defending champion Shiffrin will sit out as she feels not ready yet to compete in GS following her crash in November.
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
The Associated Press
