Ski World Cup 2017: Balancing justice

Despite his fabulous talent, Kjetil Jansrud suffered throughout the 2017 World Cup season. If he had started the 16/17 World Cup season successfully as usual, everything went wrong for him in 2017. He fluffed at such big races as the legendary Streif in Kitzbühel with a 36th place in the downhill and a 9th place in the super-G: What was wrong? Darned year? Crisis of meaning? He could touch what he wanted, he did not manage to convert his technical and driving superiority into points and victories, as he had done in the past. All the more gratifying was the World Cup Super-G, in which, in addition to his skiing skills, he was also lucky enough to finally climb back onto the podium.

The race was opened on this day by the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayer, whom no one had so on the calculation, but who to the surprise of many ended up in 5th place. This was especially evident when riders like Peter Fill, Beat Feuz or Dominik Paris had to take their place behind him. Only when Kjetil Jansrud started the race with the number 9, this should change. The intermediate times already suggested good things, because he was in the lead, his fans were cheering with him when he was able to raise his hands in the air at the finish line and shot through the finish line as the fastest so far, replacing the young Austrian Kriechmayer from the leading position. That this gave him a good chance of taking the throne was also evident when Max Franz entered the race and finished 1.37 seconds behind him. With the lucky number 13, his compatriot Alexander Aamondt Kilde got into the race and showed with a spirited drive that he wants to and can catch up with the Norwegian duo Jansrud Svindal (injured) and finished in 2nd place: double lead Norway, yes, now the jubilation was great! Then came the Canadian Erik Guay, who in recent years delivered mediocre results - at the last Super-G in Kitzbühel he ended up in 20th place. That the World Championships are able to mobilize the very last forces was shown on this day. Erik Guay, who finished 23rd at the last World Championships in Schladming and was unable to achieve anything at the Olympics, delivered the race of his life. His best time at the intermediate time was a surprise, and especially the fact that he didn't let go of it until the finish line and won the race with a huge lead of 0.45 seconds over Jansrud! What a sensation! But the biggest surprise of the day was yet to come. The Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis started the race with number 26. In previous years he could be found at the back of the field between 15th and 40th place, but it seems that the leadership of his compatriot Erik Guay, who was still radioing him important tips from the finish area for the ride up, inspired him to top performance. He was the surprise skier of the day, squeezing in between the Norwegians with a lead of 3 hundredths and taking the bronze medal.

Thus, at the end of the race, there were three riders on the podium who had been deserted by luck in the recent or longer past and now, for once, were chosen by luck. This is truly compensatory justice and reflects the excitement of the world championship, which consists in the unpredictability of the race and the winners. Fate had once again struck that day, overriding all logic: a true sports fairy tale!