MSometimes Emma Aicher has funny ideas. A few days ago she wrote “Pippi tries skiing” under a photo of herself in a slalom race. Whether she would like to slip into the role of Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren’s character, or whether the comparison is more due to the fact that Emma Aicher, who competes for the German Ski Association, is also from Sweden, she has not revealed. The cheeky brat with the red pigtails wasn’t one of the adventures of cramming into a racing suit and throwing herself down steep slopes, but she probably wouldn’t have cut a bad figure there either.
Emma Aicher is known to be a good and fast skier, even if she didn’t quite show it at the start of the Alpine World Championships in Courchevel/Meribel on Monday. Eighth in the combination, she fell short of the expectations her previous results had nurtured. After all, the 19-year-old is one of the few athletes who feel almost equally comfortable in all disciplines and who have already scored World Cup points in downhill, super-G and slalom this season.
Shiffrin fails
The result of the first World Cup decision shows why the future of the combination has been discussed for years. Those athletes who can compete in both Super-G and Slalom at halfway the same level do not always end up at the top. Defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, who has already won races in three disciplines this season, was eliminated as the big favorite on the third last goal.
Winner Federica Brignone from Italy and the Swiss Wendy Holdener, who won silver, did not unexpectedly end up on the podium – in contrast to Ricarda Haaser. The Austrian had only contested two slaloms in the World Cup six years ago. In Super-G she had never gotten past a few top ten results.
In Meribel, Emma Aicher should have taken an example from this Pippi Longstocking, who courageously mastered all challenges. Aicher admitted after the first part of the combination, the Super-G, that she drove “too carefully” on the steep slope. Otherwise it was “a solid ride”. In the slalom she started 17th – and thus had no chance of intervening in the fight for the medals. Nevertheless, it was fun, she said on ZDF.
Like Ingemar Stenmark
She is not a woman of big words, especially not of many words – and this is where Emma Aicher differs from the cheeky Pippi Longstocking. Almost all of her sentences start with “Ja”, which sounds like “Joa”, just like they say the word in Sweden. Only: sometimes there is not much after that. Your interviews are therefore reminiscent of those of Ingemar Stenmark, the Swede was called “the big silencer” when he was active. Emma Aicher had also lived in Sweden for 15 years. After a stopover in Switzerland, the family moved to Germany, the father’s homeland, because of the better compatibility of school and competitive sports. This was associated with the change of association in 2020.
The monosyllabic may help Emma Aicher: Anyone who reveals little about themselves is also not so easy to accept. After all, she is regarded as one of the greatest ski talents, and this fact prompted head coach Andreas Puelacher to ask him not to formulate too high expectations even before the season started.
Shortly after moving from Sweden to Germany, Emma Aicher was nominated for the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, aged just 17, and won bronze there with the team. Last winter she qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing, from where she returned home with team silver. Their potential has aroused the interest of an energy drink manufacturer from Austria, which is very active in the World Cup. Since this season, Emma Aicher has been riding with a red bull on her helmet – and is thus part of an illustrious circle of athletes that includes Sofia Goggia and Marco Odermatt.
She herself expected a bit that it would continue to be a steep climb. “I expected something from myself,” she says. But the way up, she found out, is more difficult than she thought. Emma Aicher is still an apprentice. At the Junior World Championships in St. Anton, she started in all disciplines as the medal favorite and went away empty-handed.
Sometimes, Puelacher said, he provokes his trainees. After the mixed start in December, he said, “Children’s skiing is over now, you have to wake up”. In fun of course, he adds. But anyone who knows the Austrian knows that he wasn’t joking. It may well be that he has to provoke Emma Aicher a bit again after the combined competition.
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