Women’s slalom in Gurgl: Suddenly Albania is on the podium

Everything was prepared for the big Katharina show. Four Austrians qualified for the second round of the home slalom in Gurgl: Katharina Troupe, Katharina Huber, Katharina Gallhuber and Katharina Liensberger. The latter was the last of the Austrian Katharinen group to get to the starting gate on Saturday, after posting the third-best time in the first run. In Levi, Finland, she finished second a week ago. The Austrian skiing hopes are weighing on her. Down in the finish area, the almost 8,000 spectators waved hundreds of red-white-red flags and cowbells. And anyone who looked Katharina Liensberger in the face up in the start house could have guessed that this trip would be complicated.

Liensberger seemed nervous, and that’s how she drove: cautiously, more concerned with not being eliminated than with attacking Mikaela Shiffrin, who was in the lead. She ended up in seventh place at the women’s premiere in Gurgl. Lena Dürr from Munich, among others, benefited from this, improving from sixth to fifth place after two solid races. “New slope, everything was very interesting today,” said Dürr afterwards: “When things get so close, you think afterwards that maybe you could still squeeze out a few hundredths.”

In the lower flat section, Dürr raced through the bars in run two as if pulled by an invisible rope. “I got the exit down very well,” said Dürr. If the run had been a few goals longer, the woman from SV Germering might have been able to advance even further. At the finish she was five hundredths of a second behind fourth-place finisher Wendy Holdener and 23 hundredths behind third-place finisher Camille Rast (both from Switzerland). Mikaela Shiffrin crossed the finish line a small slalom world ahead of everyone else and secured her 99th Ski World Cup victory. Since 2013, she has always been on the podium among the top three in her 21st slalom races in Austria. With almost a hundred successes, she has long since overtaken the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (86) and her compatriot Lindsey Vonn (82). She could reach number one hundred in a week at her US home race in Killington of all places. “I guess it’s not impossible,” she said at the finish: “It might look easy, but it’s not easy.”

Levi and Gurgl’s races showed that there are a lot of fast women behind Shiffrin, at least ten of whom can reach the podium. Since Saturday, they have included a woman who is starting for Albania for the first time: 18-year-old Lara Colturi raced to fourth place in race one with the high starting number 27 – and moved up to second place in the final. This is how the 18-year-old secured her first place on the podium, as they say in Ötztal – and the greatest success for the Albanian Ski Association, for whom the top three result was a first. And quite a few people in the finish area asked themselves: Who is this young woman – and why is she driving for Albania?

In fact, as the last name suggests, Colturi comes from Italy. She is the daughter of Olympic champion Daniela Ceccarelli and Alessandro Colturi, a not entirely unknown ski coach from Piedmont. Two years ago she moved to the Albanian association, where she is coached, among other things, by her mother, who has Albanian roots. At the age of 16, the Fis regulations allow you to change associations without the consent of your home country. The Italian Ski Association was anything but satisfied with the decision.

By changing her association, Colturi also ensured that she could sign advertising contracts herself

With her move, Colturi ensured that she could continue training with her parents. According to reports, this would not have been so easy in Team Italy. She can also sign advertising contracts herself – a factor that is apparently becoming increasingly important in the ski business. Lucas Braathen, for example, changed associations after a dispute with the Norwegian association over his advertising partners, took a year off and has started this season for Brazil, his mother’s home country. The Austrian Marcel Hirscher, meanwhile, made his comeback – after a five-year break – for the Netherlands association, where his mother comes from. Hirscher also uses this to determine his partners and promotes his own ski brand.

And then there is Lindsey Vonn, who has announced her return at the age of 40 after a break of almost six years. According to reports, she is planning to ride as a forerunner – i.e. out of competition – at the Super-G in Beaver Creek at the beginning of December and finally get seriously involved in the World Cup action again shortly before Christmas at the Super-G in St. Moritz. Unlike newcomer Colturi and the comebackers Hirscher and Braathen, Vonn apparently remains loyal to her home country. The US association had applied for her wildcard for start number 31, which was approved by the World Ski Association FIS.