On the home straight

Not only do the Downhill and Super-G races end at the finish line, but the work of the Safety Team too. Most of their tasks will be completed by Saturday afternoon.

The Safety Team wait until the “big race days” of Friday and Saturday to perform the final finishing touches to the last few metres of the Streif racecourse. Only four barriers separate racers from the spectators: an H-fence or spectator fence (on the outermost perimeter), two B-fences and a flexi-fence. Tom Voithofer and his 32-head team are primarily concerned with the safety of the top athletes. Ideally, the crew would like to be able to re-pack every net and fence in an untouched state after Race Weekend is over. Appearances, however, also play a decisive role on the finish slope. “All fences are set up in a perfectly straight line from top to bottom (from the end of the Hausberg traverse to the finish arch). The team’s efforts are assisted by a long rope and colour markings: “In addition to the safety aspect, it is also important to us that the line of fences is as straight as a die in this section,” says Tom Voithofer. Wind-warped fences just don’t make a good impression. Not on television, not for the fans at the finish line either.

The finish stadium will be more or less complete by Saturday afternoon. “We still have air fences and tarpaulins to install and make sure that everything is neatly in place,” explains Tom Voithofer, who is very much looking forward to the races. Until we get to that point, two Downhill training runs and, of course, numerous warm-up sessions are yet to be completed on the training slope, which the Safety Team is preparing with the same diligence as they would for a World Cup competition hill. The stretch at Ochsalm is almost a kilometre long and the course is always set up as a super-G with around 15 gates. More info about the training track can be found here.

Photo © K.S.C./alpinguin