Swiss national skiing team: silver medal causes excitement in Austria!

Swiss national skiing team: silver medal causes excitement in Austria!

Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Österreich - On February 5, 2025, Switzerland achieved an impressive result at the Ski World Championship in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, although there were heated discussions in advance. In a radio comment, the Swiss men's team was referred to as the "B team", which brought the Swiss athlete Thomas Tumler to Rage. After the team competition, Tumler said: "When I warm up on ORF radio, I heard that Austria had good chances because Switzerland only competes with the B team for men." This provocative remark not only fueled outrage, but also the motivation of the Swiss, who ultimately secured the silver medal. The ÖSV team, on the other hand, could not assert itself and already failed in the quarter-finals due to the later bronze medal engines from Sweden, such as Eurosport reported.

anger and motivation

The former Swiss ski star Beat Feuz commented extremely upset about the "B team" statements and emphasized that Tumler was a current World Cup winner and the Austrian athletes significantly behind this season. "That makes me a little bitter," said Feuz in an interview. Nevertheless, Tumler and his teammates, including Luca Aerni, achieved a remarkable performance and proved that successes are also possible with a supposedly weaker team. Tumler explained that the insulting comments from Austria had a positive effect and his team spurred on: "We went full throttle and showed that you can also get a medal with a B-team".

The enthusiasm for winning the silver medal was clearly noticeable on the Swiss side. Tumler emphasized how cool it was to start with a strong team and Wendy Holdener also agreed: "I am grateful that I had such a cool team". In the meantime, the mood in the Austrian camp was steamed. Alpin boss Herbert Mandl confessed that the expectations were higher and explained: "These were just too many mistakes, then it is quick in such a close competition". Despite the disappointment, the potential remains in the ÖSV team, as he finally emphasized.