At the Olympic dress rehearsal in Val di Fassa, the Germans confirmed their role as co-favorites.
Ski crosser Daniela Maier impressively demonstrated her role as a gold contender at the dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games.
In the second race in Italy’s Val di Fassa valley, the 2022 Olympic bronze medalist achieved her sixth World Cup victory, and second within a week, in a dominant and tactically shredded manner.
Wilmsmann finishes second
Florian Wilmsmann also showed himself to be in Olympic form once again. After the historic race on the previous day, when he had won ahead of his teammates Cornel Renn and Tim Hronek, the 2023 World Championship bronze medalist narrowly missed his seventh World Cup victory. This time, Italy’s Simone Deromedis was faster. The 2023 World Champion had finished fourth behind the three Germans in the first of the two races.
“I just focused on myself – and thanks to my technicians, my skis were really fast today,” said Maier, who didn’t want to overemphasize the success with an eye on the Olympics: “For me, it was important that I skied well. That it was enough for the victory gives me confidence for the next race.” The next race is the Olympic one on February 20th.
Maier should also gain additional confidence from the fact that she finished ahead of Sandra Näslund twice on Saturday. First, she tactically cleverly relegated the Swedish Olympic champion to second place in their joint semifinal – in the final, the serial winner finished fourth.