Strasser Wins Schladming Night Slalom

The men’s slalom season is simply unbelievable. Racing being tighter than ever and athletes extremely close in the slalom cup standings, racers have to find the limits and push as hard as they can. For some this can mean finishing on the podium, and others not as lucky.

In a magnificent conclusion to the men's jam-packed "slalom January," Linus Strasser became the first German ever to win the Schladming night slalom. Norway's Atle McGrath earned his first World Cup podium finishing second. Manuel Feller dominated the second run, jumping ahead 25 positions to end the day in third after finishing 28th first run.

In the first run, Kristoffer Jakobsen (SWE) had put in an incredibly powerful first run to claim first place with a 0.58-second lead ahead of Italian, Giuliano Razzoli and 0.67 seconds ahead of Lucas Braathan (NOR) and Clement Noel (FRA) both in third. However, in the second run, only two of the four manage to finish their run. Noel finished in 9th place whilst Braathen finished in 12th. Unfortunately for the leader and runner up of the first run, they didn’t manage to complete their second run.

Where others failed to complete their second run, Linus Strasser (GER) was determined to finish his and clock in a solid time. The German’s best result before tonight in Schladming was 5th back in 2015 and since he hadn’t been able to perform his best on the hill. Tonight, he was ready to change that. Starting his second run 26th, Strasser sped down the course and slid marginally in front of Atle Lie McGrath (NOR) by 0.03 seconds to claim the victory.

McGrath, who was still recovering from a hand operation was left in tears at the finish. In the first run, the Norwegian finished in 7th, 0.89 seconds off Kristoffer, however, his second run put him in the hot-seat ahead of Austrian, Manuel Feller. McGrath managed to hold onto his second-place finish to claim his very first slalom World Cup podium, which will stay with him forever. He stated, “unbelievable, it’s the only word to describe what happened tonight. It’s probably the first time in my life I couldn’t stop crying. I will never forget this moment.”

After having missed the slalom race in Kitzbühel, Feller was ready to perform. Starting with bib 1 but finishing his first run 28th, the Austrian had a lot of time to catch up in his second run. In his second run, Feller hurtled down under the Schladming lights to clock a time that held off the next 20 racers. His time was strong enough to hold off the following 6 racers after McGrath. His 3rd place finish marks the first podium result in Schladming for the Austrian and his second slalom podium finish on home soil.

Both Ben Ritchie and Luke Winters scored points for the United States in Tuesday's slalom under the lights in Schladming, Austria.

Ritchie entered the second run sitting in 11th, wearing bib 44 – the highest-ranked bib that qualified for the second run. Some trouble on the course led him to end the day in 23rd, the first World Cup points of his career. Ritchie, who started his first World Cup in 2019, had struggled to finish a World Cup slalom until Tuesday.

"I feel pretty good after a long season of DNF's so far," said Ritchie. "I was happy with the first run and second run I was skiing well, had some mistakes...but it's nice to get some points under my belt and pick up a little momentum. But now that slalom January is over, I have to wait for a little while."

Winters, representing the U.S. men's slalom team at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, finished the day in 26th after edging his way into the flip. First run, Winters finished 30th.

Fellow American Jett Seymour did not finish. George Steffey and Alex Leever did not qualify for a second run.