Keystone
As late as mid-December, Austria still seems hopelessly out of the lead in the ski world cup national rankings. Now Switzerland is leading again for the first time.
From 1988 to 2019, Austria clinched the Ski World Cup nations ranking an incredible 32 times in a row before Switzerland was able to strike back. In 2022, the ÖSV stars managed another interlude, but Switzerland was the undisputed number 1 for the last three seasons.
But the throne began to shake this winter. In mid-December, especially after the injury-related absences of top performers Lara Gut-Behrami, Corinne Suter and Michelle Gisin, there was serious concern about Swiss supremacy. After the first women’s downhill race in St. Moritz on December 12th, Austria was a whopping 637 points ahead of Switzerland in the nations rankings.
Turnaround came with a triple victory
The Swiss men hit back the following day with a triple victory for Loïc Meillard, Luca Aerni and Marco Odermatt in Val d’Isère. Since then, the Swiss ski aces have gotten closer and closer to the Austrians, and after the successful races on Saturday in Adelboden and Zauchensee, they have taken the lead for the first time this season – and quite clearly. Switzerland is currently 166 points ahead of Austria.
Keystone
In Adelboden, Joshua Sturm was the best Austrian in 14th place, with Lukas Feurstein (21st) only one other made it into the points – the figureheads Stefan Brennsteiner and Marco Schwarz were eliminated. Things went almost worse for the women on the descent in Zauchensee. Although six Austrians scored points, the best – Cornelia Hütter – only got 20. To make matters worse, Magdalena Egger also tore her cruciate ligament and will be out for the rest of the season.
Among the women, the ÖSV athletes have significantly more points in the national rankings than the Swiss, but they are not first there either. The ranking is led by the Americans around superstars Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, while Switzerland takes third place.
