Tanja Poutiainen challenges the favourites.
Everybody expected Anja Paerson to dominate the season start - the defending Overall World Cup champion did well so far with a win and two 2nd places, but the star so far was her friend Tanja Poutiainen, who reached four podiums in a row. An impressive achievement for the Finish champion.
Consistency is definitely one of the great qualities of Tanja Poutiainen, the first skier from Finland leading the Overall World Cup standings.
The 24-year-old athlete from Rovaniemi, in the North of Finland, is the only women having reached four times the podium this winter winning two of three races this weekend in Aspen.
I just let my skis run
“I have done better in a week than in any other season - I never reached more than two podiums in a winter so far,” said Poutiainen, who lives now in St Gallen, Switzerland. “I don't know what happens to me this season, I feel so relaxed and so confident, I just let my skis do the job without thinking too much about tactics. It's way too early to think about the Overall title, the season is still very young and I don't plan to compete in downhill. I may try racing a Super-G in Austria in a couple of weeks but for the moment, I only want to focus on my next race.”
Poutiainen, who won her first World Cup race last season on home-turf in Levi, has been racing for seven years on the World Cup tour after clinching gold at the 1997 Junior World Championships. A series of injuries in 1998 and 1999 slowed down her pace - she broke twice her right leg within twenty months and missed the entire 1999/2000 season.
Her comeback was not easy since she started in her first races with high numbers. Several top-10 results helped her to move up in the standings and to improve her start-order. In 2002, she missed an historic first Alpine Olympic medal in slalom for Finland. Poutiainen skied out in the second run after clocking the fastest intermediate time. She was 3rd in the first leg. She ended 11th in giant slalom. In St Moritz 2003 she performed only slightly better - she was a disappointing 10th in slalom.
Anja is pleased too
Her actual strong form in the technical races will force Anja Paerson, twice 2nd here before skiing out in the first run of the second slalom, to raise her level in the speed events to regain the lead in the Overall standings. The Swede, who won 11 races last winter, was not too disappointed about her US races. “It was important for me to see that I didn't loose too much of my rhythm in slalom despite my intensive summer training in the speed events,” she said.
“I was tired and I made a mistake in that first run on Sunday but I basically think than I'm in good shape in giant slalom and slalom. Now we will see how well I can handle the coming speed events in Canada where I never raced. For sure it will be an interesting season with the comeback of Janica Kostelic and the strong challenge from my friend Tanja who I know for a long time. I'm very happy for her because she is a nice person and it's good for the women's tour to have great characters fighting for victories.”
Kostelic happy to race downhill
In Lake Louise where two downhills and a Super-G are scheduled the coming weekend, Kostelic will also be able to see how strong she is in the speed disciplines. “I'm very excited to compete again in downhill and Super-G which are technically easy events for me,” she said after her remarkable slalom win on Saturday. “It's always nice to win slaloms but I'm looking forward for good results too in other specialties. I won 20 events - 17 slaloms and 3 combined - and it's my dream to win once a downhill.”
It seems to be “business as usual” for the 22-year-old champion from Zagreb, who didn't looked particularly moved by her impressive comeback more than six hundred days after her last World Cup slalom.
“Of course I'm very happy but that's the way most of my career was so far - to win, to get injured or sick, to come back, win again and get injured or sick again - that's life. That's why the most important for me has always been to be healthy and to be able to ski. I don't make any plan for this season - I can't predict how I'll feel in January or February, I may be quite tired. For the moment, I have no problem with my thyroid and this is great too.”
A triple Olympic Champion and a double World Champion, Janica will soon know if she has the potential to win a third Overall title. As Paerson, she has to excel in downhill and Super-G to keep fighting for the title.
The Alpine Nations aiming for their first win
In Lake Louise, the traditional alpine nations as Austria, Switzerland or France hope to achieve better performances than so far. No skier of these countries reached a podium yet. But Renate Goetschl, the 2000 Overall Champion, and Michaela Dorfmeister, who clinched to big Crystal globe in 2002 are know to need some time before finding their best rhythm. France's Carole Montillet, a double winner in Canada last winter, will also be fighting for podiums in Lake Louise.
Manuèle Lang
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