Better than Germany

The “little Ländle” saves the ÖSV interim balance sheet

Lukas Feurstein is one of four Ländle aces who have already made it onto a World Cup podium this winter.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Back in 1973, Wolfgang Bilgeri and Michael Köhlmeier described Vorarlberg as "small but mighty". 51 years later, this is especially true for the ski aces from the Ländle, who are presenting themselves from their best side in the winter of the home World Championships in Saalbach. Four of the seven ÖSV podium places so far have come from the western federal state, which would even be ahead of Germany in a "nations' ranking".

Ariane Rädler was delighted with her third place in the super-G in Beaver Creek. "Especially because I didn't feel so good during the run," admitted the 29-year-old, who celebrated her second podium finish after third place in the Zauchensee super-G in January 2022 and impressively underlined the current supremacy of Vorarlberg skiers in the ÖSV camp.

A look at the statistics proves it. Without the Ländle, things would not look good at all for the long-standing number one skiing nation. With Rädler, Katharina Liensberger and Patrick and Lukas Feurstein, four VSV aces have made up the majority of the seven red-white-red podium places in the home World Championship season so far.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/GEPA)

The Ländle is also number one in terms of points collected. Of the 1506 World Cup points collected so far, 452 have been scored by Vorarlberg athletes. Both Patrick Feurstein (112 points) and Liensberger (177) are currently the best-placed ÖSV athletes in the race for the overall World Cup. "Liensi", Ari, Nina Ortlieb and Magdalena Egger together collected 262 of the total 781 points of the red-white-red ski ladies - that corresponds to almost a third. In the men's event, the Feursteins and Johannes Strolz scored 190 points between them. Only the Tyroleans were more eager to collect points, with six skiers scoring 222 points so far.

But Vorarlberg is also doing very well in international comparison. After 15 of 73 decisions, they would be in eighth place in the Nations Cup with 452 points, leaving skiing nations such as Germany (405) and Canada (240) behind.