29-year-old Ramona Hofmeister immediately secures her Olympic ticket after a three-and-a-half-month injury break – as does third-placed Melanie Hochreiter.
Snowboard ace Ramona Hofmeister (Bischofswiesen) triumphantly secured her Olympic ticket in her comeback after a three-and-a-half-month injury break and immediately became a medal contender.
The bronze medalist of the 2018 Winter Games sensationally met the norm for participation in the upcoming Winter Games in Italy during her season debut in Scuol, Switzerland, despite her significant training deficit in the Olympic parallel giant slalom, thanks to her 27th World Cup success.
Hochreiter also at the Olympics
In addition to the four-time overall World Cup winner, Melanie Hochreiter (Berchtesgaden) also qualified for the Olympics with a third-place finish in her first knockout round participation of the winter. In the men’s competition, Elias Huber was the best German. The 26-year-old, who had already secured his Olympic ticket, was however disqualified in the quarter-finals.
Hofmeister was apparently surprised herself. “I can’t believe it, I’m so happy, I enjoyed every run, it’s really crazy,” said the beaming winner in the finish area.
For the German race boarders, the results of Hofmeister and Hochreiter in the Olympic winter marked the second and third podium finishes. So far this season, only Stefan Baumeister had stood on a World Cup podium last December with his second place in Mylin, China.
Hofmeister prevailed in the final against Italian Elisa Caffont. Her lead was 0.55 seconds. Hochreiter benefited from her opponent Sabine Payer (Austria) withdrawing from the “small final” for her second podium finish after third place in 2022 in Simonhöhe/Austria.
Hofmeister suffered a broken ankle bone and a torn lateral ligament in a training case in Zermatt. The 29-year-old had to miss the start of the season with the five races before Scuol and only got back on her snowboard shortly before Christmas. After the holidays, the first training with the team was finally possible again.