This weekend, Switzerland's Carlo Janka became the fourteenth male ski champion achieving the prestigious alpine ‘triple-crown' hat-trick, winning as well gold at FIS Ski World Championships, Olympics as the Overall World Cup title. The list started with skiing legend Jean-Claude Killy and includes other ski heroes as Gustavo Thoeni, Ingemar Stenmark, Pirmin Zurbriggen and most recently Bode Miller. Yet Carlo did it at at record pace - within thirteen months!
Janka, who turns 24 in October, is one of the youngest of them - only Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt was younger (22) in 1994 when he clinched the Overall title after becoming Super-G Olympic champion in 1992 at Val d'Isère and double World Champion in 1993 at Morioka. In the following twelve seasons, until his last Olympic triumph at Sestriere, Aamodt accomplished a series of impressive performances, including becoming the only fourth skier able to win races in all five modern alpine disciplines after Pirmin Zurbriggen, Marc Girardelli and Gunther Mader. Bode Miller joined that group in recent years.
The outstanding athlete from Oslo also claimed gold medals in all disciplines except downhill, finishing twice second in that specialty at the Olympics (1994) and the FIS Worlds (2003). In total, Kjetil collected twenty medals at major events from 1991 to 2006 and he was quite a happy man when he finally could retire in December 2006.
With his total 21 World Cup wins, the Scandinavian did very well on the World Cup tour in the following twelve winters, ending the general classification six times 2nd and one time 3rd.
New records for Carlo Janka?
Most of the experts and many racing colleagues strongly believe that Janka, who only competed in his second full World Cup season this year, has the talent and the guts to become one of the dominators of the ‘White circus' in the coming seasons - to eventually set news records. They also praised his coolness and his determination which helped him to achieve blistering performances despite huge pressure - as it was the case in the second giant slalom runs at Val d'Isère 2009, Whistler Creek 2010 and new at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Yet the skier from Obersaxen, in the eastern part of Switzerland, also had more difficult moments this winter, as last December in Val d'Isère when he failed to get through all three races held on the ‘La Face de Bellevarde' slope a week after his impressive 3-3-3 triumphs at Beaver Creek where he won three races in three consecutive days in three different disciplines!
Carlo Janka not only has strong nerves but also a smart mind. He is not fooling himself despite the excitement which surrounded him after his unexpected final triumph. At Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he managed to remain modest and relaxed after his latest win when asked about his next goals. "It'll be for sure difficult to repeat such a season, I'll do my best and we'll see," he wisely told the press.
"I already have reached as lot so far, but there are still many great races and more medals to clinch as well as a few specialties World Cup titles. The most important is to remain healthy, focused and to fully enjoy what I'm doing now. I didn't plan to be already fighting for the big globe this season, especially not after losing several training months last summer because of a virus. I'm as surprised as everybody else," he also commented.
As so many other great stars, Janka aims to excel in top ski ‘Classics' as Kitzbühel, Adelboden, Kranjska Gora, Alta Badia in the coming years on his way to possible other Overall titles claimed with a few more points.
‘Only' 1197 points for Janka
His total of 1197 is not particularly impressive. Only France's Luc Alphand and Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal scored fewer points since 1992 when they clinched the big cup in 1997 and last winter - 1130 for Alphand and 1009 for Svindal. Hermann Maier captured his second Overall title in March 2000 with the record mark of 2000 points and Stephan Eberharter reached 1702 points in 2002. Paul Accola, the last Swiss Overall champion got 1699 points in 1992!
The top-3 finishers - Janka, Benjamin Raich and Didier Cuche - scored a total of 3 240 points all together this year, far from the 4 397 points accumulated by Bode Miller, Raich and Maier in 2005 and the 4 435 points accumulated by Maier, Aamodt and Fritz Strobl in March 2000! This stats show that Carlo - and his rivals - still have a big margin for improvements in future.
Top champions as Svindal, Cuche, Raich or Ivica Kostelic, who had to rest during three weeks in December because of his back problems, certainly will fight back and keep Janka under pressure, forcing him to raise his level week after week. Didier Cuche also suffered two significant setbacks this winter - he first broke a rib and sustained a small concussion early December after a painful crash at Val d'Isère then he broke a finger at Kranjska Gora end of January - yet he finished pretty close to his younger teammate.
Cuche turns 36 in August
36 years old in August, Switzerland's veteran aims to compete for another winter in 2010/2011 - with more luck he could well be an even tougher contender in the coming season. Didier won five races this winter in three specialties - but it could have been many more!
Svindal, who has started a nice collections of FIS and Olympic medals since 2005 - seven in total now including four in gold - has not found back yet his moment from the 2007 season. The 27-year-old only won a single race in December - the Super-G at Val Gardena - and collected six more podiums finishes. With his 13 wins and 16 podium results in four disciplines, the tall and elegant Norwegian already established himself as one of the most efficient racers in recent seasons and more is soon expected from him. His three Olympic medals from Whistler Creek should strongly boost his moral and confidence for the next years.
Another exciting World Cup season is expected to start in seven months at Soelden, Austria - hopefully all the big leaders including Bode Miller will be there.
PkL
