Muriel Mohr had been preparing for this first Slopestyle World Cup of the winter for weeks in the Stubai Zoo, the Tyrolean freestyle park at an altitude of 3,000 meters. But many hours and days of waiting and being ready had to pass before the wind and weather conditions stabilized at the highest point of the glacier ski area last weekend and the competition judges could finally give the green light.
Not that easy for the 88 world’s best freeskiers, because there was only one warming refuge up there from the biting cold of up to minus 16 degrees: the Jochdohle, the highest restaurant in Austria after Cafe 3440 in the neighboring Pitztal, It can quickly become uncomfortably crowded in its narrow confines. Korbinian Resenberger, the team manager of the DSV freeskiers, describes the scenario like this: “You drive up in the dark at six in the morning, prepare yourself, then the competition is postponed every half hour – and finally canceled at three in the afternoon.”
Anyone who is not mentally stable will find it difficult to achieve their best performance on the monstrous jumps. Muriel Mohr, the 18-year-old from Kirchheimer SC, succeeded quite well: fifth place was her best slopestyle result to date. The even better news: There was even more in it.
The career path of the young woman from the east of Munich, who has recently enrolled in health sciences at the University of Innsbruck, seems to have only one direction for years: upwards. 2021: two silver medals at the Junior Freestyle World Championships. The following year: World Cup debut, at the age of 15 – and came fourth. 2023, the next Junior World Championships: gold in slopestyle. The following year: gold in slopestyle, silver in big air, plus two bronze medals at the Youth Winter Olympics.
The first World Cup podium in mid-October, third place at the Big Air in Chur, and now the best slopestyle placement of her career in the Stubai – a lot to be happy about, especially since the training effect of the new landing bag at the federal base in Berchtesgaden will probably only be felt next winter should really hit home. But instead of exulting, the team manager describes his colleague’s mood with mixed feelings: “Because she knows that the podium was there.” If this mishap hadn’t happened to her in the last training session.
After the competition, we went to the World Cup in China without a break; the World Cup awaits in March
After days of capricious weather, it was finally clear on Saturday that the competition could take place. The men were first in the best conditions, which Vincent Veile from TSV 1860 Munich was unable to take advantage of; After two unsuccessful runs, he ended up outside the top 40. When the women started, the wind had picked up again – and Mohr lost the ski in the air on the last training jump when she hit her own ski too hard in the so-called mute grab had reached. She survived the following fall better than her helmet: it broke and had to be replaced quickly.
A little out of concentration, Mohr initially made a better safety jump in the competition, botched the final rail session in the second round and ultimately came in a very good fifth, behind the industry giants Tess Ledeux, Mathilde Gremaux and Sarah Hoeflin, who have been dominant for years. There are not many points that separate Muriel Mohr from the absolute best in the world. If it were a sport with punches and thrusts, one would speak of striking distance.
Of course there was no time to toast the good result in the Jochdohle. After the competition, we took the gondola down to the valley at half past three, went home to the washing machine and dryer, and were back at Munich airport the next morning at half past eight: via Amsterdam to Beijing, an eleven-hour flight in one go. Mohr thinks ahead here too and invests the prize money he just won in an upgrade: Economy plus instead of wooden class. Your body will thank you.
Qualification for the Big Air competition takes place on Friday at the Olympic facility in Beijing, before the final takes place on Sunday, which Mohr has his sights firmly set on. Of course, there is no proper mountain hut in China’s capital, but the conditions are more stable than on a Tyrolean glacier; team manager Resenberger even speaks of “laboratory conditions”. Afterwards we go to the Corvatsch Glacier for a week of training, where the World Cup will be held in March. They really don’t want to leave anything to chance – freestyle skiing can’t be planned anyway. Who else knocks their skis off their feet just before the competition at a height of a few meters?
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