Marco Sullivan beats all the favorites

Patrick Lang 27.01.2008 08:49 Uhr

USA’s Marco Sullivan certainly achieved one of the most impressive comebacks in recent years at Chamonix celebrating his first ever World Cup win several years after suffering painful setbacks because of several serious knee injuries.

The 27-year-old Californian from Squaw Valley, sidelined during two winters in 2004 and 2005 after blowing-out his knee-ligaments, beat by 40/100 of a second Switzerland’s top-favorite Didier Cuche while Slovenia’s Andrej Jerman was 3rd at 46/100.

Austria’s slalom specialist Rainer Schoenfelder embarrassed his colleague from the downhill team in finishing 4th only 4/100 far from the podium and ahead of Canada’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis, the fastest skier in Friday’s last training run.

The skier from Whistler Mountain would have been a serious candidate for victory in that seventh downhill this season without his major mistake made in the first high-speed right turn which he took far outside the best line. He made-up much time on the lower part of the course but he surely lost nearly a second because of the error.

Marco Buechel was a solid 6th ahead of Bode Miller, slightly injured at a knee and his calf on Thursday when he nearly crashed after the first long jump.

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic was another sensational top-10 finisher today – he came in 8th, an amazing accomplishment for the former slalom World Champion.

Klaus Kroell was the best of the defeated Austrian downhill team in 10th place far ahead of Michael Walchhofer (18th) or Hermann Maier (44th) a former winner here. Walchhofer, who was aiming for his first podium this year, suffers a bad flue which forces him to skip Sunday’s Super-combined event.

Marco was confident
Sullivan, surprising 2nd at Lake Louise earlier this season, proved with two top-10 finish at Wengen (7th) and Kitzbühel (6th) that this result was not a fluke. On Friday, his level of confidence was strongly boosted by his third best training time yet he was more than surprised by his triumph today.

“This is crazy, I can’t believe what I just did,” he said with sparking eyes and a huge smile after his run. “I was aiming to achieve a solid run today, but for sure I didn’t think about beating all the other big guys,” added the happy racer who started in 11th position.

“The waiting at the finish area was agonizing, I was so excited and nervous, but I really thought that skiers as Didier Cuche would be much faster than me. I had a hard time believing that his time was slower than mine after he crossed the finish line.”

“It’s a nice course for gliders, I knew that my Nordica skis were extremely fast here as recently at Wengen and Kitzbühel, so I fully attack from the top to the bottom.”

“I’m proud to be the first downhill winner with Nordica skis, the company has been working hard to provide Scott Macartney and myself with efficient material this winter.”

“I was thinking a lot about Scott today. I miss him a lot, we normally share rooms and we always encourage each other. In fact, I called him right after the race and he was not so happy at first to be awaked so early, but then he was glad to hear that I won that race.”

“This win is a wonderful reward for all my difficult moments since the year 2000, when he suffered my first major injury. I always believed in me and kept on fighting back, but I can tell you that it was sometimes really hard.”

Sullivan, 4th last season at Val Gardena, and 28th at the FIS Worlds at Are, didn’t compete from November 2003 to November 2005. “I started again with very high bibs, so I had to be patient, but I kept on moving-up and improving in the following weeks and months. Now I’m fully back and having a lot of fun,” added Marco who is not competing in Sunday’s Super-combined because he wants to properly celebrate his success on Saturday night.

Cuche was happy
Didier Cuche, for the tenth time on the podium this season, warmly congratulated Marco for his performance. “I know what such a win means for somebody who had to fight back after being badly injured, Marco is a great guy. I’m really happy for him, he fully deserves that success,” the Swiss told the press after the race.

“I’m not too surprised by his strong run because he has been quite consistent this winter and very fast yesterday. I did a few mistakes but nothing really bad so I’m happy with my 2nd place. This kind of course doesn’t favour my technique and I felt some pressure at the start because I strongly wanted to excel here to confirm my great win from Kitzbühel.”

“There was a great crowd along the course including many supporters from my fan club. I enjoyed the atmosphere a lot today. It’s a positive result for my quest to clinch another downhill World Cup title. I increased my lead on my toughest rivals as Bode Miller or Michael Walchhofer and I reinforce my position in the Overall standings too,” also said Cuche who hopes to score a few points in Sunday’s competition.

It was also an excellent day for Jerman, who reached his first World Cup podium this winter. Last year, he became the first Slovenian downhill to win a World Cup downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen where he also came in 2nd the next day in the race won by Canada’s Erik Guy.

“I have often been pretty close from the podium this season after finishing 4th in Super-g at Lake Louise,” he said. “I was very fast afterwards in recent downhills but I always made too many mistakes on my way down. Last week at Kitzbühel, I was one of the quickest at the top but I blew it in the middle section. I was very frustrated afterwards because it’s such a big event, so I wanted to fight back here.”

In Sunday’s Super-combined, Rainer Schoenfelder is the skier to beat now. The 31-year-old Austrian, who focuses now more on his racing and less on his singing, was thrilled to ski among the world class specialists today. “It’s for sure a huge achievement for me, because downhill is such a fascinating specialty,” he explained. “I was not so lucky this month since my comeback at Adelboden but now I aim for another great race on Sunday.”

Thousands of spectators are expected to come to Chamonix to support Jean-Baptiste Grange, the winner at Wengen, who didn’t enter that race. Grange has a good chance to regain the lead in the combined standings in case he finishes ahead of Bode Miller.

Mario Matt and Benjamin Raich, a distant 33rd today, are the other top candidates for the podium.