Alpine Skiing: victories for Svindal, Maze and Zettel

For Aksel Lund Svindal it was a glorious way to start the new speed season. After capturing the super-G globe last year, the Norwegian took the top spot twice, both in the downhill and super-G races on 24th and 25th November in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Svindal left the Austrians Max Franz and Klaus Kroell behind in the season opening downhill. The following day, Svindal also won the super-G clearly ahead of France's Adrien Theaux and Austria’s Joachim Puchner. He thus became the first man to pull off the double at Lake Louise since American Bode Miller in 2004.

“It’s always a great start to stand on the podium the first weekend of the season. Lake Louise is a challenge because it seems easy but it’s not really – it’s hard to go fast here. I was third here in last year’s super-G and am really happy I moved this far up this year”, Svindal concluded.

Ladies start the season in bluebird skies in Aspen

Blue skies, warm weather, and hard snow in Aspen, one of the toughest stops on the ladies tour, made for exciting ladies giant slalom and slalom races on 24th and 25th November.

Slovenia’s Tina Maze dominated the field in the giant slalom, winning by almost a full second over Kathrin Zettel from Austria and Viktoria Rebensburg from Germany.

In the slalom race the following day, the lady who laid it all out on the line was Austria’s Kathrin Zettel. With two almost perfect runs, she held top spot and ended up with a well-deserved win ahead of teammate Marlies Schild and Tina Maze.

Tina Maze who has been on the podium already three times in four competitions this season along with one fourth place finish, again demonstrated she is in excellent shape. “I've been racing World Cups for thirteen years now and “it's now or never” I say. We have been working five years to be at the place where I am now and we would like to continue this way until the end of the season.”

Next races in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek

The ladies tour has moved on to Lake Louise for the first speed races of the season where America’s Lindsey Vonn is looking to repeat last year’s hat-trick performance in the two downhills and one super-G from 30th November to 2nd December.

The men will be heading to Beaver Creek, Colorado (USA) for downhill, super-G and giant slalom races on the famous Birds of Prey course from 30th November to 2nd December.

To stay tuned, visit fisalpine.com

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