Podium Profile: Albrecht, Cuche on fire

Switzerland was on fire Sunday, putting three racers on the podium. Daniel Albrecht got his second career win in the Beaver Creek GS today; Didier Cuche placed third again to top the overall standings; and Martina Schild got her first career win in the Lake Louise super G.
SWITZERLAND was on fire Sunday, putting three racers on the podium. Daniel Albrecht got his second career win in the Beaver Creek GS today; Didier Cuche placed third again to top the overall standings; and Martina Schild got her first career win in the Lake Louise super G.
    What a day! “It is a really great day for our Switzerland,” Cuche said. “I am happy for the women … and it is was a great day for our Swiss men also. It’s not often that we have two guys on the podium.” The congenial Swiss racer jokingly added: “When the people said, 'Schild win' I asked Marlies or Marlies?” As in legendary racer Marlies Schild of Austria.
    The slalom meister Mario Matt got his first career GS podium. Ted Ligety of the U.S. finished tied for fourth.
    However, for the Swiss men, the day was memorable. Cuche got bumped to overall leader in the World Cup standings. Albrecht, who was the 2006 super combined world champion with no prior World Cup wins, got pushed to third. He got his first career wins in Beaver Creek this week with a first in super combined on Thursday and today’s win in giant slalom.  
    “I was the world champion without any winnings before,” Albrecht said. “It was kind of strange but I was always asking for that and now I have two winnings in the few days. It’s pretty cool.”
    Cuche jumped in and said: “It’s awesome.”
    It surely was impressive being that most of the field had struggled on the bottom half of the track, losing precious time. With the reverse order start, the fastest and last part of the field struggled with shadows. Ligety said that was definitely an issue, and so did Albrecht.
    Starting 20th out of the 30-racer field, Albrecht knew he had to push in order to get on the podium. “I had to take some risks,” Albrecht said, “and I was a little bit lucky on the bottom to ski so fast.”
    With such good results, it’s doubtful the Swiss are just lucky. They are skiing fast and surely have momentum on their side.
    “Now we have a good feeling and atmosphere,” Albrecht said, “the whole team. Everybody is working good. Everybody is skiing fast. It’s kind of easy.”
    The Swiss are on fire.