Finals award crystal globes

The action-packed 2012/13 season that saw breathtaking World Championships in all FIS disciplines is coming to an end. As the first disciplines, ladies’ Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined and Alpine Skiing crowned their respective World Cup winners at the season Finals in Oslo (NOR) and Lenzerheide (SUI), respectively, last weekend.

Ladies’ Ski Jumping

The second ladies’ FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season presented by Viessmann in history consisted of 16 competitions at ten different locations with the final held at the famous Holmenkollen in Oslo (NOR) on 17th March. For the first time, the final was carried out on the large hill and only included the top 30 ladies in the season rankings. In a tight fight for the top podium spots, Japan’s Sara Takanashi and defending champion Sarah Hendrickson from the United States battled it out for the crystal globe, just as in the previous season. After Sarah Hendrickson took last year’s title and became World Champion in Val di Fiemme (ITA), this year it was time for Sara Takanshi to crown herself the ladies’ FIS Ski Jumping World Cup champion. Thanks to eight individual victories and a total of 13 podium spots, the 16 year-old confirmed her title with four competitions to go and in the end secured victory with a margin of 250 points. Meanwhile Hendrickson came out victorious in four World Cup events and scored ten podiums. A happy Coline Mattel from France took third place, 474 points behind Takanashi.

Nordic Combined

With 19 races on schedule this season at 12 different locations in the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup presented by Viessmann, Erik Frenzel, Germany’s World Champion and bronze medallist from Val di Fiemme (ITA), secured his first ever crystal globe. With six individual World Cup wins and a total of nine podium finishes, he claimed the overall FIS Nordic Combined World Cup title in Oslo (NOR) by a 216 point margin to defending overall champion Jason Lamy-Chappuis from France and Akito Watabe from Japan (313 points behind).

Alpine Skiing

Skiing in a dominant fashion throughout the season, Tina Maze and Marcel Hirscher secured the overall titles and crystal globes at the 2012/13 season Audi FIS Ski World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide (SUI). While Maze reached a historic 2414 World Cup points, Hirscher defended his title from the previous year by claiming a total of 1535 points.

Outstanding Tina Maze not only took the overall title, but also secured the crystal globes in giant slalom and super-G. Out of 900 points possible for the giant slalom title, the 29-year-old earned 800 points this season, winning on five occasions, placing 2nd three times and 3rd only once. She thus holds the all-time record for most ladies' giant slalom podiums in one World Cup season. In super-G, she claimed one victory and three podiums in six events in earning a total of 420 points.

Despite the unfortunate cancellation of the final speed events, Norway’s skiing ace Aksel Lund Svindal took the downhill and super-G titles, making it ten globes in total during his career. By doing so, the 28-year-old became the first Norwegian to take both the downhill and super-G title in the same season, which only six other men in the history of ski racing have achieved to date.

Record-breaker Ted Ligety who secured three gold medals at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Schladming (AUT) topped his outstanding season performance by claiming the crystal globe in his specialty, giant slalom. Defending giant slalom World Cup champion Hirscher took second spot but instead nailed his first crystal globe in slalom after taking the World Championship title in the same event.

On the ladies’ side, it was 18 year-old rising star Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States who claimed the slalom title by beating Tina Maze in the final run and taking the race victory which turned her 7 point deficit in the rankings to a winning margin of 33 points for the season’s slalom standings. She thus became the fourth youngest lady to win the slalom crystal globe and the youngest since Christa Zechmeister (FRG) in 1973/74.

The excellent results of the US ski team was crowned by skiing queen Lindsey Vonn who secured the downhill globe despite being injured since the Alpine Worlds in Schladming to take her 17th World Cup title win in defending the downhill globe for the sixth consecutive time. Vonn clinched the globe by a margin of just one point over Tina Maze after the final downhill competition had to be cancelled due to fog.

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