Right in the middle of Olympic Park, nearly in the center of Munich, Germany, where the Summer Olympic Games took place in 1972, riders competed for parallel slalom points in front of 5000 spectators.
Olympic Hill is 567 meters high and isn't truly a ski resort, nor a boarder's paradise, however, race organizers managed to put a slope in place which was worthy of a World Cup race. A start platform was built on top of the hill and the length of the slope was increased by putting a pontoon on the lake that supported the finish corral.
In November, organizers were ready to start preparing the course, but warm temperatures delayed construction until late December. In mid January, 4000 cubic meters of artificial snow were made and the slopes length was increased to 170 meters with a height difference of 70 meters — one of the shortest courses ever built!
After yesterday's qualification, heavy snow began to fall and it didn't stop until this morning, when the precipitation turned to heavy rain that continued all day — another challenge for the organizing committee. But the slope turned out to be perfect for exciting head-to-head duels and those who came despite the weather, obviously had fun racing.
Mathieu Chiquet was surprised with first in the men's race. The slalom specialist from France has been among the top riders for the past couple of years but was still missing a World Cup podium this season. His second place at the World Championships last week seems to have given him confidence and today he won his third-ever World Cup race.
"It was amazing to race in front of this crowd," Chiquet said. "The weather could have been better but the organizers did a great job building the slope."
Mathias Behounek from Germany made it to the finals with the 15th fastest time in the qualification rounds, but looked as if he really wanted it today, especially after his teammate and Bad Gastein winner, Markus Ebner missed the finals and Markus Layer, the second German to qualify, was eliminated in the round of 16.
In the quarter finals, Behounek faced Walter Feichter from Italy who won the first run and looked like he would advance, when Behounek slipped. Since a race is decided at the finish line, 'Meti' picked it up again and had luck on his side when Feichter also crashed further down the course. While Feicher was still trying to get back on his board, the German crossed the finish line and went on to the semi-finals where he then beat Mathieu Bozzetto from France.
In the final duel against Chiquet, he made a mistake in the first run and almost closed the gap in the second, but finally had to leave it with the French and finished second. "On my way here this morning I was listening to a radio interview of Martina Ertl," Behounek said. "She was injured just a couple of weeks ago but she said she was convinced that she could pull it together some time and she did when she became combined World Champion yesterday, so why shouldn't this happen to me also?"
Bozzetto met Dejan Kosir from Slovenia in the small final for third place and claimed the bronze by only one hundredth of a second.
World Champion, Nicolas Huet, was eliminated by Behounek in the round of 16 and finished 11th, but kept the lead in the parallel slalom standings — ahead of Kosir and Bozzetto.
Carmen Ranigler surprisingly won the women's race by beating World Champion Karine Ruby from France in the final duel. "I would have appreciated it if the race was cancelled today," Ranigler said. "I was so sick of all the rain and did not like to race today, but once I was on the slope I just went for it and it worked better as the heats went on."
Ruby captured second and felt pretty good about that. "I did not like the soft snow and the slope was very short," she said. "The competition was great and it was important for all of us but I prefer the regular slalom slopes which are a bit longer. The city events are great..."
Rosey Fletcher from the United States finished third by beating Austrian rider Claudia Riegler in the small final for third place.
Karine Ruby keeps the parallel World Cup lead with Ranigler sitting in second now ahead of Fletcher.
Berchtesgaden, Germany will be next beginning on February 8th, featuring two halfpipe contests, a parallel slalom and a parallel giant slalom.
