CORTINA D’AMPEZZO. The return to the podium at the right moment: Dominik Paris finds his smile again in a sunny Cortina d’Ampezzo and takes a classy second place in the super-G leading up to the Courchevel-Méribel World Championships. «This season I didn’t think I’d still be able to get on the podium-he says-he, I really didn’t expect it. Really beautiful, positive and that gives me a lot of confidence ». He started with the number 1, with no particular references from his opponents (if not those of the forerunners) a factor that in any case had no influence, indeed perhaps it played in favor of the giant from Val d’Ultimo who had been missing the top 3 in super-G since December 2019. «With a little more information you certainly have more courage to push, but this morning I had done a good reconnaissance». After Mattia Casse and Florian Schieder, the Italy of speed celebrates the return of the most awaited man on the eve of this season.
The blue Paris gave up 76/100 to Marco Odermatt, who at the moment is impregnable for everyone and who on the Olympia delle Tofane, which has returned to host the men’s World Cup after 33 years, scored a brace with the usual class. His great opponent, the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, made a mistake and ended up out. Just like Mattia Casse – third yesterday – who slipped into the nets a few seconds after the start. No problem for him. So the third step of the podium went to the Austrian Daniel Hemetsberger, already 1”03 behind the Swiss.
The Azzurri sprinters improve: Guglielmo Bosca, stopped several times due to injury, achieved ninth place which is equivalent to the best performance in his career and equalized the same placement obtained in the Kvitfjell descent last March. Immediately behind, tenth, the veteran Christof Innerhofer, man of the great events that he has given so much to Italy. Now the World Cup is taking a break, the spotlight on Courchevel-Méribel, with a Dominik Paris who has found himself and who has said he appreciates the French slope.