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Never before has an athlete been so happy to win a crystal ball in skiing as Loic Meillard (24) did last winter after his triumph in the giant parallel slalom.
«This parallel format is not well thought out. So I would have preferred to win the giant or slalom ball! “Next Friday the next giant parallel slalom is scheduled in Lech am Arlberg (Austria). The defending champion Meillard, like his teammates Marco Odermatt (23) and Justin Murisier (28), will not be at the start: this trio received a positive corona test on Saturday.
“You can also train in quarantine”
Meillard doesn’t seem bent over the phone when speaking to BLICK: “I currently feel virtually no symptoms. And since I have a well-equipped gym in my apartment in Hérémence, I can also do strength training and conditioning in quarantine.”
Marco Odermatt, who founded a shared apartment with a colleague last spring, also has a gym. And the Nidwalden also cheerfully reports the Quran: “I had cold symptoms for two days, but now I am symptom free again.” Odermatt doesn’t mind the fact that he doesn’t shed tears over the exit ban in Austria: “If I hadn’t tested positive, I would have started in Lech. But the parallel giant slalom is not my favorite discipline. And that is why it is much more important for me to be there again in Val-d’Isère in early December. “
Ski stars didn’t catch each other
Justin Murisier dismissed the parallel giant slalom as a “bad joke” in an interview with BLICK the week before the previous one. The Lower Valais man complained in particular that the FIS had significantly shortened the goal distances in this division for this season: “During practice, I felt like a racing driver with a four meter wide vehicle over two meters. You must drive the slope. The new gate distances are too short for our giant slalom skis, which have a radius of 30 meters. “Now, after the positive corona test, Murisier also escaped the unpopular path to the parallel start. And it’s true that Meillard, Odermatt and Murisier were not infected either: our giant heroes did not train as a group, but individually last week.
Tomorrow, the remaining Swiss giant slalom hopes will have to endure another crown test. Only then will head coach Tom Stauffer be able to form Lech’s lineup.
