Lenzerheide: Raich, Schild eye the big prize

Benjamin Raich and Marlies Schild are romantically involved off the slopes. This weekend, the Austrian skiers could be celebrating together on the podium as overall World Cup champions.
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — Benjamin Raich and Marlies Schild are romantically involved off the slopes. This weekend, the Austrian skiers could be celebrating together on the podium as overall World Cup champions.
    With just a slalom and giant slalom remaining at the World Cup Finals, only Schild’s teammate Nicole Hosp and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway can prevent the dream finish for the pair.
    “It would be great, but we both have two more days of racing in front of us, and then we’ll see what happens,” Schild said.
    Svindal’s consecutive downhill and super G victories have brought him to within three points of Raich, the Olympic slalom and giant slalom champion.
    “Benni is going to be hard to catch now,” Svindal said. “I think Benni has the advantage for sure.”
    Hosp, 70 points behind in the women’s race, faces a similarly daunting task as Schild has won seven of eight slaloms this season, the last by 2.23 seconds, the largest victory margin for any man or woman since 1979.
    “I have a small chance left,” Hosp said after finishing fifth in Thursday’s super G, two places behind Schild.
    A victory is worth 100 points. If Schild wins the slalom, Hosp would have to finish second, worth 80 points, to set up a final showdown in Sunday’s giant slalom.
    The last time both the men’s and women's overall titles came down to the final weekend was in 1993. Anita Wachter's 11th-place finish in the season’s final slalom was just enough to beat Katja Seizinger of Germany, while Luxembourg’s Marc Giradelli sealed his victory in the penultimate race with a third-place finish in the super G.
    Both technical specialists, Raich and Schild came up big in the races they weren’t expected to, remaining in the lead through the speed events earlier in the week.
    Benefiting from early start times and the highly technical sets on the Silvano Beltrametti course, Raich managed to finish 13th in the downhill before equaling a career best by finishing second in the super G.
    The results, crucial as only the top 15 score at the World Cup Finals, offset Svindal’s two victories and eliminated Didier Cuche from the overall title race, barring an unlikely slalom success for the Swiss speed specialist. He also knocked 2005 champion Bode Miller out of contention.
    Schild’s sudden surge in the speed events has been even more impressive.
    Starting the week with a lead of only 15 points over Hosp and 51 over Julia Mancuso, Schild was not expected to be able to match her faster rivals in the downhill and super G.
    But she finished a career-best second in Wednesday’s downhill and third in the super G the following day. She outscored every racer over the two days, even Renate Goetschl, the World Cup discipline champion in both.
    Mancuso has little hope now, while Hosp needs to do well in Saturday’s slalom to stay in the hunt.
    The last time an overall title was decided on the final day was two years ago. Anja Paerson of Sweden held on to beat Janica Kostelic of Croatia by the smallest margin since skiing’s current point system was introduced in 1992.
    Kostelic was seventh in the slalom — and in position to win the overall title by one point — with one skier left to come down. But Maria Jose Rienda Contreras of Spain delivered a sizzling run to win, bumping Kostelic to eighth and giving Paerson the title by three points.