Victory for Elisabeth Goergl

The satisfaction of winning the Super G event this week has been unimaginable after a long journey for Elisabeth Goergl of Austria. Winning her first gold medal was an extremely proud moment for the accomplished alpine skier, who also enjoys downhill disciplines as well as giant slalom. Born on 20 February 1981, Goergl will most definitely have something to celebrate along with her birthday as the enormity of her victory begins to sink in. Even though she was up against world class competition, the Austrian skier did not allow pressure to deter her from delivering one of her best performances.

Goergl had to settle for a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships, but the Super G event of the 2011 World Championships seemed to have been waiting for her, as skiing is most definitely in her genes. Her mother, Traudl Hecher also won a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics of 1962 and 1964.

Two well known names in the skiing industry, Maria Riesch from Germany and Julia Mancuso of the United States of America provided intimidating competition for Goergl, but could not beat her time of one minute and twenty-three seconds. Mancuso was only off the mark by .05 seconds, while Riesch finished her round in a time of one minute and twenty four seconds. Lindsay Vonn, who was there to defend her title in the Super G discipline and who is the overall World Cup champion, commented that participating might not have been a good idea on her part, after sustaining a concussion a few days earlier when she fell during practice. Vonn was only able to secure a seventh position. The top ten positions were as follows: Elisabeth Goergl, Julia Mancuso, Maria Riesch, Lara Gut, Anna Fenninger, Elena Curtoni, Lindsay Vonn, Fabrienne Suter, Daniela Merighetti and Anja Paerson.

Goergl told the press that to take on the Super G course you need to ski it. Most contenders did comment on the dangerous conditions and bumpy ride they had to endure. Elisabeth Goergl, however, had a strategy going into the event and was quoted saying: “I wasn’t nervous at all at the start. I had a good run, I did what I had planned to do. The conditions were in my favor in this case.”