Vincent Kriechmayr's tactical approach in the Vertigine racecourse pays off to win a second gold in Cortina in the Downhill.
Kriechmayr won his first gold medal at the world championships in the Men's Super-G on Thursday 11 February. Only Herman Maier (1999) and Bode Miller (2005) won both Men's speed events in the same year. Pirmin Zurbriggen and Erik Guay also won both world titles, but at separate world championships.
The last Austrian man to win the Downhill world title was Michael Walchhofer in 2003.
“I’m really proud, (...) I had my medal and I wanted to show my best. I wanted a second medal of course, but gold is amazing. It was a difficult race, it was not perfect. I lost a lot of time in the last part of the race. But I was pretty fast in the middle”, Kriechmayr said.
“I think it will take a few weeks to really process everything that’s happened in the last few days, (...) I’m definitely happy, but it will need to sink in for me to believe it", Kriechmayr added.
Asked about matching Maier and Miller, he said: “They are both legends, of course. In every discipline, I was a fan of these two guys. And to be on the same step – I’m not a legend like these guys, but I’m proud about today”.
Andreas Sander missed gold only by 0.01 seconds. He has claimed for Germany the first world championship medal in the Men's Downhill since 2001.
“I had a good feeling at the start”, Sander said. “I felt in shape, I felt good. I felt, ‘You can do it, maybe you can surprise’. I felt it at the start. I’m super happy”.
Beat Feuz finished in third place 0.18 seconds behind Kriechmayr. Feuz who was the World Champion in St. Moritz in 2017, also won a bronze medal in the Downhill at the world championships in 2015.
He joined the club with the record number of world championships medals won in this event set by Svindal (G2-S1-B0), Russi (G2-S1-B0), David Zogg (G1-S2-B0), Émile Allais (G1-S2-B0), and Peter Müller (G1-S2-B0).
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