Val D’Isere, France
The Austrian star went back to the hotel, studied video footage of his run, changed his ski equipment, and beat the field by a large margin few hours later.
“After the first run I was in shock about how much I struggled. It wasn’t easy for me,” said Hirscher, who ended up beating his main slalom rival, Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, by 0.39 seconds. Sweden’s Andre Myhrer was another 0.01 behind in third.
“In the second run, I wanted to try something different,” Hirscher said. “We used a completely different setup, and it has worked out perfectly.”
Hirscher and his team managed to adapt his skis better to the tough conditions on the Stade Olympique de Bellevarde course. Dense snowfall made for a slope with lots of soft spots, so Hirscher decided to use skis with less sharp edges.
It helped the six-time overall champion from Austria to overcome a deficit of more than half a second from the first leg, which Hirscher finished in eighth. It was the Austrian’s 47th career win and first in a slalom race since breaking his left ankle in a practice run in August.
“My skiing is good again, but my looseness is still miles away from where it once was,” said Hirscher, who trailed first-run leader Stefano Gross of Italy by 0.55 seconds after the opening leg.
Many racers struggled on the course, which contained spots of slippery ice as well as soft snow, while snow on their goggles limited visibility. Before the start, course workers removed a layer of fresh snow off the race line.
Vonn Withdraws With Back Injury
St. Moritz, Switzerland
“Unfortunately, I will not be able to race today,” Vonn wrote on her Twitter account 45 minutes before the original scheduled start.
“I am extremely disappointed, but my biggest goal this season is the Olympics,” said the American star, who won the downhill title at the 2010 Vancouver Games but missed the 2014 Sochi Games due to injury.
Vonn jarred her back Saturday early in a World Cup super-G on the same St. Moritz course, and completed the race in obvious pain in 24th place.
Late Saturday on Twitter, she described the injury as “an acute facet (spinal joint) dysfunction,” though she had not had an MRI.
Vonn added Sunday: “I need to take care of myself now so I can be ready for next week, and more importantly, for February.”
The Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea are staged Feb. 9-25.
Fog and strong winds high on the mountain had already forced race organizers Sunday to shorten the scheduled race and use a lower start gate.
The 10:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT) start was pushed back to 11:30 a.m. (1030 GMT) before organizers gave in to the thick fog shrouding the mountain.
The super-G was intended to be a stand-alone race and also double up as the first leg of a combined event with an afternoon slalom run. The combined was also canceled.