3rd place for Tina Maze

Slovenia's Tina Maze found back part of her winning form today to finish 3rd in the pre-Olympic Super-G race hold on the new « Fraiteve Olympic » run in Sansicario. This result allowed her to move-up in 9th place in the Super-G World Cup standings. She is now 8th in the Overall standings with a good chance to remain among the top-10 in Lenzerheide where the Finals will take place in two weeks.

“This is really great, I was really nervous when the favourites came down,” Tina said. “I'm very happy because I didn't feel so strong coming here and this result is a strong boost for my confidence and my momentum,” she added. “I was quite tired yesterday after the downhill training but today everything went on fine. I was very fast in the final part which helped me to reach this podium. This morning, I was relaxed and this certainly helped me to ski so well during my run. The weather and the course conditions were excellent too - I really enjoyed competing today.”

“I'm quite proud of my recent Super-G results. Before this season, my best performance was a 21st place in Are last year, yet this winter I scored in all Super-G race, finishing several times among the top-10. I'm so happy to have been racing in all specialties this winter, it's much more interesting. I hope to continue progressing in all disciplines, especially in slalom and downhill, so I may have a better chance to fight once for the Overall World Cup title.”

Tina is pleased by her season

“Despite my unsuccessful races at Santa Caterina where I was sick, I'm pretty pleased with my season. I did much better than I thought on the World Cup tour. I'm especially excited to have won that great race in Maribor in front of my fans. This will always remain a fantastic recollection.”

Tina is competing in Saturday's downhill but she may skip the World Cup combined on Sunday. “I have to save some energy for the Finals,” she explained. “I plan to go training for a day or two in Lenzerheide then at home. I need to rest a little at home too.”

The best ever woman skier from Slovenia in the Overall World Cup standings was Mateja Svet, 6th in 1989. She won gold in slalom that year at the Vail World Championships. Spela Pretnar, also one of the great Rossignol skiers, was 7th in 1995 and also in March 2000. She won the slalom World Cup title that year. Urska Hrovat was twice 10th and once 9th in the early 1990's. Tina's best classification so far was her 34th place last winter - so she achieved quite a spectacular progression in the last twelve months.

Patrick Lang