Beautiful blue skies and sunshine pure have characterized the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in Crans-Montana (SUI) that were carried out over 7 race days from January 30 through February 5, 2011 with close to 350 female and male racers from 50 nations.
Crans-Montana was a success not only thanks to the weather but also from an organizational point of view. All competitions of this important international event bringing together the best young ski racers, ages 15-19, were successfully carried out thanks to great efforts by the organizing team.
Spread out over seven days, around 20,000 spectators came to witness the racing action in the finish area, which was kicked off on Sunday with the men's giant slalom and the ladies downhill training. A crowd of more than 4,000 people attended the opening ceremony on Sunday evening at the centre of the town of Crans-Montana, which was topped off by an appearance and speech by special guest Didier Défago, the reigning Olympic downhill champion who congratulated the athletes for qualifying and thanked their parents and coaches for their support.
Swiss with eleven medals ahead in medals table and Marc Hodler Trophy
After the conclusion of all ten events of the 2011 Junior World Championships, the home team from Switzerland, who has earned medals in 8 out of 10 title events, wins the medal table with eleven medals against seven for Austria. Both Slovenia and Switzerland have claimed two gold medals.
The Swiss were also the only country with two triple medalists - the talents Justin Murisier (2 silver, 1 bronze) and Wendy Holdener (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) clearly stood out among the many shining young talents, many of whom have already made a splash at the FIS World Cup level.
Besides the previously mentioned, the stars of Crans Montana on the men's side also included Slovenia's Bostjan Kline with two golds (downhill and super G) and Austria's Frederic Berthold, the son of the Austrian men's head coach Mathias, with double silver (downhill and super G). Reto Schmidiger of Switzerland was responsible for another highlight on the men's side. He was one of the most successful youngsters in Crans Montana to go home with two gold medals (slalom and combined) and by successfully defending his Junior World Championship title in slalom, he became the first racer ever to defend the slalom title in two consecutive years since the inauguration of the Junior World Championships in 1982.
On the ladies' side, there was only one other athlete besides Holdener, who won more than one medal. The 18-year-old Austrian skier Cornelia Huetter won two bronze medals (downhill and super G).
Altogether, 9 nations won medals, seven of them gold. The most gold medals went to Switzerland with three golds, five silver and three bronze, which earned Switzerland the first place in the medals ranking. Slovenia followed in second with 2 medals (2 gold) and Austria took third with 7 medals (1 gold/3 silver/3 bronze).
The coveted Marc-Hodler-Trophy, named after the long-time former FIS President, for which the best two racers from each nation score points, also went to host country Switzerland with 132 points, 39 points ahead of Austria (93 points) and 85 points ahead of France (47 points). Germany and Italy both share the 4th place with 37 points, followed by Slovenia in 6th with 36 points, only one point behind.
Since the first Junior World Championships in 1982, Switzerland has never earned more than eight medals. In Crans Montana, the Swiss youngsters almost scored a full dozen. Priska Nufer missed the super G podium on the final day only by .09 seconds.
"Although the young medal collectors still have a long way to go, the good result gives us a lot of courage and confidence," says Franz Hofer, responsible for the youth program at Swiss Ski. "Also when looking at the more meaningful Marc Hodler Trophy ranking, which looks at all the top ten results per race and nation, the Swiss team collected 132 points, which is 39 points more than the Austrian Ski Federation. But we need to remain realistic. No one of them has won a World Cup yet", Hofer adds.
Results:
For complete results, visit: http://www.fisalpine.com/place/Crans-Montana,44.html or http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=28585&cal_suchsector=AL
For more information, visit: http://www.skiwc-cransmontana.ch/
Please check out http://www.fisalpine.com/videos-archive.html for video footage.
