Established 1961 13 Sports Thursday, February 8, 2018 Norway’s comeback king Svindal favourites for Olympic gold Svindal has the chance to become the oldest man ever to win PYEONGCHANG: Norway’s Aksel Lund G at Kitzbuehel in January. “I’m really hap- Olympic downhill,” he said. Svindal bears all the scars from horrific py I’m back because, honestly, the last two crashes and career-threatening injuries as years were not super easy. A big knee BOUNCING BACK mementos of a tough life on the piste, but at injury is probably the worst injury you can Svindal’s last two seasons have ended the age of 35, he heads into Sunday’s men’s have as a ski racer,” he told Reuters. Svindal prematurely due to knee injuries. Those downhill as one of the favourites for certainly is back. came on top of an absence of nearly a year Olympic gold. He sits second in the World Cup down- following a massive crash in 2007 and In the final chapter of a brilliant another long layoff four years ago with career, Svindal has the chance to become an Achilles tendon injury he sustained the oldest man ever to win an alpine ski- kicking a ball around with his team ing gold medal at the Pyeongchang mates. Games. Durability is something of a trait Nothing epitomises the courage and in Norwegian skiers. Knee injury is durability that Svindal has shown Svindal’s boyhood idol Kjetil Andre probably the throughout his career than the way he Aamodt won Super-G gold at Turin in turned the Colorado venue of Beaver 2006 aged 34, a record until Austria’s worst you can Creek from being the scene of a night- Mario Matt won the slalom at Sochi mare to one of his favourite courses. four years ago, also at the age of 34. have as a ski racer In November 2007, Svindal was at Lasse Kjus won gold in the combined his peak when he tumbled dramatically as a 23-year-old on home snow in down the piste after misjudging a jump Lillehammer in 1994 and was still com- in training while racing along at 120 peting in three events at the Turin Games as hill standings-behind Switzerland’s Beat km per hour on the tricky Golden Eagle Aksel Lund Svindal a 35-year-old. Svindal, who won gold, silver Feuz-and also faces a strong challenge section. and bronze in Vancouver in 2010, failed to from in-form 24-year-old German Thomas He was left unconscious on the slope, months before he returned to action. Yet strength, the Norwegian has since won medal in Sochi and has been plagued by Dressen, who won the prestigious with a deep gash in his left buttock returning to Beaver Creek, a year after that three more downhill World Cup races at injuries in recent years but the Norwegian Kitzbuehel downhill last month. caused by one of his skis. He also broke a bloody crash, Svindal put the bad memories Beaver Creek. Having lost his mother, who looks to have hit form at just the right time. The Norwegian, however, remains bone in his back and had several frac- aside and won both downhill and Super-G died in childbirth when he was eight years So far this season he has won World Cup focused on getting the one prize that has tures to his face. in spectacular style and set up a season old, the popular Norwegian’s friendly races in downhill at Beaver Creek and Val so far eluded him. “If I could choose one He was rushed to hospital where he was where he regained his overall World Cup demeanour has sometimes masked his Gardena, and picked up a victory in Super- race to win this year, it would be the to spend three weeks and it was a full 10 crown. As if to emphasise his mental steely determination. — Reuters Hirscher wants first gold things happen.” Canada’s Teams Canada and USA have bat- to cap career tled to a near standstill over the last several months in the run-up to the women Pyeongchang Games, which run from PYEONGCHANG: Marcel Hirscher has dom- Feb. 9-25. They split an exhibition inated World Cup skiing for the past six sea- are on a drive series 3-3, but ahead of that, the US sons, but the Austrian admitted yesterday a captured gold at the 2017 women’s first “amazing” Olympic gold medal would be world championships - their fourth the icing on the cake. for five straight in that competition. Despite winning six overall World Cup “I think the rivalry between Canada crystal globes between 2012-17, with 55 vic- and the US has been there since the tories and 120 podiums, Hirscher has just one PYEONGCHANG: The Canadian inception, and that every single time individual medal at a Winter Games, silver in women’s ice hockey team head into the we’ve ever faced the US it has been a the slalom in Sochi in 2014. Winter Olympics as the underdogs to one-goal difference, it’s gone into The 28-year-old finished a heart-breaking a top-ranked US squad, but they know overtime, it’s a back-and-forth hockey fourth in the giant slalom in both Sochi and STOCKHOLM: File photo shows Marcel Hirscher of Austria competes during the FIS Ski World Cup they have a mission to fulfill: a fifth game, it’s best-on-best competition, Vancouver four years earlier, where he also parallel slalom city event in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 30, 2018. — AFP straight gold medal. and I think that’s what makes it so came in fifth in the slalom. “It would be an Canada have failed to take home great,” said Schuler, who played on the amazing success, not a life-changing or “It’s important to win a gold medal, I think this and see where I’m ending up after these gold just once since the women’s game 1998 team that captured silver. career-changing success, but it would be it’s an important piece of rounding out a Olympics.” debuted at the Winter Olympics in Canada open their Olympic cam- really nice to have,” Hirscher said of an legacy like his, but at the same time... it does- Hirscher said the winner on the speed Nagano, Japan, in 1998. Most often paign on Feb. 11 against the Russians Olympic gold. n’t change the fact he’s one of the greatest of events track at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre they have had to get past the United and then take on Finland before meet- “What is 100 percent sure is that I will go all time,” Ligety said. piste could well be the one whose team finds States, winners of that first-ever gold, ing their archrivals on Feb. 14. Schuler’s for it, that’s the plan. Plans don’t always work The American was quick to add: the right “set-up”, nailing down the correctly to earn the top spot on podium. players say they aren’t looking past out, but you never know. “It can be that the “Hirscher’s been very dominant this year, but edged and waxed skis so they work the most This year is sizing up to be no dif- those first two games, though. dream comes true but it can also be that I the Olympics are different from the World efficiently on the hard-packed snow and in ferent, except that a revenge-motivat- “We can’t take any team for grant- finish the Olympic Games with just one sil- Cup so hopefully the race goes differently bitterly cold conditions. ed Team USA are slightly favored and ed. We’re on a mission here,” said for- ver.” Asked whether things were different from how it has been in the World Cup!” The clue was “testing, testing, testing and are as eager to end their own drought ward Meghan Acosta, one of Canada’s now than for Sochi, a relaxed Hirscher said: playing with all the experience we have, the as the Canadians are to extend their assistant captains. “When we look too “Yes! Having 55 World Cup wins and six big A BIG HONOUR whole team, and hoping we’re making the good fortune. far ahead that’s when we lose sight of crystal globes.” “If I’m done tomorrow it will Hirscher dubbed Ligety’s praise “a big right decisions when it comes to waxing, “We’re really confident with where our goals.” be fine anyways, it was an amazing career.” honour”. edging”. “You know if you have the right set- we’re at,” Canada head coach Laura They are also not worried about One of Hirscher’s main rivals in the giant “Every athlete is here wanting a gold up on the race day. You know if you have it Schuler said at a news conference yes- having their southern neighbors seen slalom will be American Ted Ligety, who will medal and hopefully pushing it as hard as after two turns or if it’s a complete mess, but terday. “I know we’ve got a great team, as the team to beat this year, either. be hunting a third Olympic gold despite hav- possible,” he said. not during testing. The race hill is always dif- a great team with probably the best “They’re too shy to say it, but we love ing enjoyed nowhere near the success of the “Now I’m missing that Olympic gold ferent from training hills, but it’s the same for chemistry, the best group of girls that being the underdog,” team Canada Austrian on the World Cup circuit.