WHOEVER WINS IN KITZBÜHEL, IS A HAHNENKAMM WINNER
Downhill, deferred Downhill, Hahnenkamm Downhill, Ganslern Slalom, Wengen, Kitzbühel, Flachau. Questions about who may and may not call themselves a Hahnenkamm winner have been piling up over the last few days. Let us explain:
The slight confusion began with cancellation of the races in Wengen and subsequent deferral of the Lauberhorn Downhill and Slalom to Kitzbühel. This all continued when the two Kitzbühel Slaloms had to be moved to Flachau. Can the winner of the Ganslernhang slalom, which was moved to Salzburg, call himself a Hahnenkamm winner? Is the winner of Downhill 2 on Friday, 22nd January, just as much a Hahnenkamm winner as the triumphant winner of the Hahnenkamm Downhill the day after? The answer is quite simple:
Anyone who wins a competition in the Hahnenkamm Races is a Hahnenkamm winner. It makes no difference whether it’s a Downhill, Super-G on the Streif or a Slalom on the Ganslernhang Slope. This has all happened before in the long history of the races.
Even those who win a deferred race in Kitzbühel, may call themselves a Hahnenkamm winner. The first double downhill races took place as early as the 1950s. Which means, the winner of Downhill 2 on Friday is just as much a Hahnenkamm winner as the winner of the Hahnenkamm Downhill the day after.
In this modern era, anyone who wins a Hahnenkamm race on the Streif and Ganslern, regardless of discipline, receives a chamois trophy and has their name dedicated to a Hahnenkamm cable car gondola.
Drawing from this logic, if an original race must be moved from Kitzbühel to another location, it is of course no longer a Hahnenkamm race. This means that the slaloms held in Flachau on 16th and 17th January, which were originally to have taken place in Kitzbühel, will not be Hahnenkamm races. Because of this (unfortunately), neither Manuel Feller nor Sebastian Foss-Solevaag are Hahnenkamm winners.
P.S: For traditionalists, there is only one "real" Hahnenkamm winner. The athlete who wins the Combined title. This standpoint, however, was relegated to the past in 2016.
