Skiing: Kostelic runs and slalom competitions in Madonna

Ante Kostelic is now 87 years old and has been retired at home in Zagreb for several years, but on Wednesday evening we had to remember him and his work in the Ski World Cup again. Kostelic, father and coach of the former Croatian series World Cup winners Janica and Ivica, was known since the 1990s for putting in hard-to-conquer, highly technical slalom runs on the ski slopes in the World Cup. There are some legendary episodes from this era, including at the 2014 Olympic Games he ensured that five of the top ten athletes were eliminated in the second run. And in Kitzbühel, the then race director Günter Hujara once stepped in and changed one of his runs because it was considered undriveable.

In any case, the popular term “Kostelic Run” has outlived the gnarled old Croatian’s coaching career and is still used as a reference today. On Wednesday evening, in the second round of Madonna di Campiglio, it happened again.

This time Robert “Momo” Füss had a mercilessly difficult run in the snow. The Allgäu native works as a slalom coach at the Austrian Ski Association and, as a kind of successor to Kostelic, is known for his fondness of giving athletes a brain teaser. In Madonna they had to manage mean transitions after waves or ignore red herrings that were actually just a distraction. The run was so complex and unrhythmic that it would hardly have been surprising if the slalom riders had also had to run in circles around the gigantic Parmesan balloon of an Italian cheese sponsor.

They were spared that, but in the end they realized: Füss’s course setting ensured that Madonna’s second round was the best slalom competition of the season so far. And at the same time a magnificent and warning example of the fact that skiing currently thrives more than ever on its technical disciplines.

While Kostelic runs previously caused heated debates in the finish area, this time there was widespread agreement: such a complex course was extremely welcome, and urgently necessary even in the eyes of some trainers. Most World Cup slaloms are “too easy,” said the head of the Austrians, Marko Pfeiffer. “We had very easy runs most of the time this winter,” said Belgian Sam Maes in an interview with BR and praised the second round, even though he was eliminated.

The 27-year-old is a prime example of the development that has been observed in slalom for several years. The world’s best in skiing’s most technical discipline is moving ever closer together; it’s no longer just the big nations that have a say. The Norwegians and the French certainly dominate among men (in Madonna with Clément Noël and Paco Rassat in first and third place). In the slalom, however, smaller associations such as those from Finland (the young Eduard Hallberg came third), Belgium and Great Britain also have a realistic chance.

For several years now, the Brit Dave Ryding has been showing what is possible. He once trained on a grass field in Lancashire where he would never have become a downhill skier – but he did become a brilliant technician. Training in slalom is cheaper, the slopes are shorter, the effort is lower, as is the risk. If you watch ski schools training in the Alps these days, you will mostly see young people with short slalom skis turning around lots of poles. And it’s not uncommon for mom and dad to be happy about it because the speed isn’t that high and the accidents aren’t that bad.

The negative effect of this development is that fewer and fewer riders are eligible for victories in the downhill competitions, and there is often a lack of young talent in the speed disciplines. In the slalom, however, this development leads to an extremely high performance density for men and women; the top ten runners are regularly only separated by a few hundredths of a second. This effect is intensified even more with easy courses that do not pose any mental tasks but invite you to race: putting simple runs in the slalom is a bit like giving rally drivers a motorway.

The five slalom competitions of the season so far have been won by five different runners

Madonna and his complicated second run could therefore become a blueprint for the traditional slalom January with the classics in Adelboden, Wengen, Kitzbühel and Schladming. It’s also about maintaining a remarkable series: The five slalom competitions of the season so far have been won by five different runners, which is also proof of how broad the field of contenders for victory currently is.

The question remains what role Germany’s candidate will play in the big hit. On Wednesday evening, a late, serious mistake by Linus Straßer prevented him from getting a better result, but he still sees himself on the right track: “The important thing is to stand at the finish and say: I gave myself the chance for something good to come out, that you allow speed, but also mistakes,” said Straßer after his 14th place. A traditional late starter is the 32-year-old, who often needs something at the start of the season, but whose favorite races are still to come – and anyway, this season is about being in top form in February, at the Olympic Games.

If the slalom gold winner is sought among the many contenders in Bormio, it may again be under difficult conditions for the benefit of the spectators and drivers. As Marcel Hirscher once said in 2014 after surviving the Kostelic run in Sochi and taking silver: “We are looking for the Olympic champions and not running a student race.”