Austria leaves defending gold medalist off Olympic roster

Andrea Fischbacher (GEPA/Andreas Pranter)

Disappointment is in the air the day after most national ski teams announced their Olympic selections for the alpine skiers who will compete in Sochi next month. Perhaps the tightest race for qualification occurred in the nation of Austria where, despite securing the maximum number of quota spots for its alpine Olympic team (22), the ski federation still had several tough decisions on its hands. In the end, Olympic super G gold medalist from the Vancouver Games, Andrea Fischbacher, will stay home without the opportunity the defend her title.

Fischbacher, who has two top-10 results from last year’s World Championships in Schladming, Austria, is in the midst of an even stronger season this year. Though her record falls shy of the success she found in 2010 heading into Vancouver, she finished eighth in this season’s Beaver Creek downhill as well as 10th and 11th in the Cortina races. She skied out in yesterday’s super G, however, effectively ending her chances of defending her gold medal.

In Fischbacher’s absence, Austria will rely on Anna Fenninger, Elisabeth Goergl, Nicole Hosp, Cornelia Huetter, Michaela Kirchgasser, Bernadette Schild, Marlies Schild, Nicole Schmidhofer, Regina Sterz, and Kathrin Zettel to bring home the hardware, totaling 10 female athletes. Every female skier, excepting Sterz, has produced a top-5 result on the World Cup this season. Sterz has two top-10 and seven top-15 finishes to Fischbacher’s one top-10 and two top-15 placings.

On the men’s side, Austria selected Romed Baumann, Max Franz, Reinfried Herbst, Marcel Hirscher, Klaus Kroell, Mario Matt, Matthias Mayer, Joachim Puchner, Benjamin Raich, Philipp Schoerghofer, Georg Streitberger, and Otmar Striedinger for the Olympic squad, totaling 12 male athletes. Each athlete on the men’s team has scored a top-1o World Cup result this year, and several have picked up podium finishes. Hannes Reichelt was originally nominated to the team, but he had to withdraw from competition after undergoing back surgery on a herniated disc. Puchner is his replacement.

Benjamin Raich, the double gold medalist from 2006 who will appear in his fourth Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, has been selected as the flag bearer for Austria.