"I am out." Those three words, spoken two days before the new season was about to start in Sölden, from the then-current slalom World Cup champion Lucas Braathen, left the ski world shaking. What followed for the Redster team was a winter on a rollercoaster of glorious triumphs and bitter moments of trepidation.
The season records of Mikaela Shiffrin and Manuel Feller couldn’t be more impressive:
Together they won 11 out of 20 slalom races this season. “Felli” triplicated his total amount of World Cup victories within just that one season and did not even DNF once. Mikaela, on the other hand, finished on the podium eight times in ten races, all despite a 44-day break after her horrible crash in Cortina.
While our G.O.A.T raised the number of globes under her belt to 8 (slalom globes – tying the record for most discipline globes) respectively 16 (in total, including five big globes), Manuel Feller made a dream come true with his very first crystal globe.
In-between, the tour took painful turns when athletes across the team ended races in the safety net, occasionally giving the feeling that this streak never ends. We hereby send good vibes over to Marco, Aleks, Sofia, Florian, Joana, Adrian, Sabrina, Carmen, Malorie, Laura, and many other Redster athletes who are on their way back.
Even more impressively, our somewhat depleted team still managed to collect 50 podium finishes and 17 victories across all disciplines, achieved by 14 different athletes from seven countries.
As always, it’s the small pieces that make the big picture complete, such as…
… the double victories by Manuel Feller and Marco Schwarz at the first race in Gurgl, Mikaela Shiffrin and Sofia Goggia in St. Moritz, and Mikaela and Mina Fürst Holtmann in Saalbach;
… the podium triple pack by Sofia Goggia in 1st, and Nicol Delago and Mirjam Puchner in shared 3rd place on our home ground in Zauchensee;
… Filip Zubcic’s stunning consistency in GS with eight top-10 results culminating in a third place in the discipline World Cup;
… Elvedina Muzaferija's historic 4th place in the Downhill in Crans Montana;
… Jeffrey Read and Christina Ager celebrating their respective first World Cup career podium finishes;
… Maja Waroschitz setting a milestone with her World Cup debut becoming the first athlete from our Juniors To Champions program to make it to the World Cup;
… the no less than 12 rookies who premiered in the World Cup this season.
With that said, the tone for the next season is set – “Vamos dançar!”
