Snowboard/Ski World Championships

Gasser, Karl & Co. chase precious metal in St. Moritz

Anna Gasser

(Bild: GEPA)

With the three defending snowboard champions Anna Gasser (big air), Andreas Prommegger (parallel slalom) and Jakob Dusek (cross) and a promising team, Ski Austria will be represented at the World Championships in snowboarding, freestyle skiing and freeskiing from Tuesday to March 30 in St. Moritz. In the Engadine, the Austrians are hoping for a similar haul as in Bakuriani in 2023, when the ÖSV team returned home with three gold, six silver and four bronze medals.

Only Avital Carroll will start on Tuesday on the mogul slope in the qualification, as her teammate Katharina Ramsauer injured her shoulder in training on Monday and is out. Carroll won two bronze medals in Georgia two years ago, but has since been slowed down by injuries and has only finished in the top ten once. After an ankle injury at the World Cup opener in December 2023, she suffered a shoulder injury last December and only returned to the World Cup four weeks ago.

Experienced athletes want to extend their medal collection
The red-white-red medal hunt will therefore probably only start on Thursday in the parallel giant slaloms. The snowboarders are practically an Austrian medal guarantee. Since the first FIS World Championships in Lienz in 1996, precious metal has always been won, with three gold, four silver and two bronze medals in Bakuriani being the second most successful snowboarding title for the ÖSV.

Among the men, the veterans Prommegger (44) and Benjamin Karl (39) are still among the hot favourites. Olympic champion Karl, three-time World Cup runner-up this year and the most successful male boarder in World Cup history with five gold medals, came away empty-handed two years ago and wants to get back on the podium in the Engadin. Two-time PGS season winner Prommegger would become the second most successful rider with a fourth gold. Arvid Auner also claimed a win this season and took the World Cup globe in the parallel slalom at the World Cup final in Winterberg.

Sabine Payer is a contender for gold in the women's event. The Carinthian won the parallel giant slalom (1) and parallel slalom (2 x) this season and reached the final five times. Payer also gained a lot of self-confidence in Winterberg with her victory in the parallel slalom at the World Championship dress rehearsal. Claudia Riegler still wants to keep up at the age of 51.

Gasser jumps for third World Championship gold
Double Olympic champion Gasser will only be going for her third World Championship title in the Big Air in the second week. The final will take place on Friday evening (March 28) in the Festival Village, where numerous show acts will be on offer on both World Championship weekends in addition to sport. On the same day, Dusek will defend his title in snowboard cross, where he will be challenged by Vorarlberg Olympic champion Alessandro Hämmerle, among others. In ski cross, Adam Kappacher is probably the most promising ÖSV starter.

Question marks over Svancer's fitness
The freeskiers' big air is only on the program towards the end of the title fights - certainly not to Matej Svancer's disadvantage. The 20-year-old from Salzburg is the newly crowned overall World Cup winner in Park & Pipe, but suffered a painful heel bruise at the beginning of the month and has therefore already withdrawn from the slopestyle competition in the first week of the World Championships. His big air competitions will take place on March 27 (qualifying) and 29. Over 1500 athletes from around 40 nations will be competing in 30 events.