Marlene Schmotz routinely lists “one left, one right”, and that does not mean the simplicity of successful turns in the giant slalom in the Ski World Cup.

There was talk of torn cruciate ligament, and this chapter of her medical file is particularly unpleasant for the skier from SC Leitzachtal, in addition to a broken ankle: "Zwoamol is enough - I never need that", she says before the World Cup kick-off this Saturday (10 a.m. in ARD and Eurosport) in Sölden.

Achim Dreis

Sports editor.

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The one on the right knee overtook her along with an inner ligament damage in January 2020, shortly after she was among the top ten of the World Cup for the first time.

Now the 27-year-old is again fighting to catch up with the ski leaders.

“I'm full of anticipation,” says Marlene Schmotz before her comeback attempt.

The fact that her new start at the start of the alpine skier season takes place in autumn on the melting glacier in Sölden is something the federal police officer does not want to concern herself with any further.

The date was recently criticized by the former German forerunner Felix Neureuther as "out of time", as the racers inevitably have to train for it in the summer.

Also on glaciers.

This year the Germans were in Zermatt and Sas Fee, in the Pitztal and Sölden.

"You have to accept the fight"

Only the previously usual South America trips were left out, for reasons of corona pandemic. “Sölden always comes very early,” says Marlene Schmotz, especially since there is another four-week break from racing. But she sees herself as the wrong contact when it comes to fundamentally redesigning the racing calendar or questioning the glacier race for environmental reasons: "We athletes will not be able to have a say in that."

She focuses her aggressiveness on the physical and athletic.

“You don't forget to ski.

As soon as I have had an operation, everything is forgotten, ”she claims and explains her comeback mantra:“ You have to accept the fight. ”Accordingly, the 1.63 meter tall athlete announces“ full attack ”and“ full attack ”for Saturday.

Initially, it is only a matter of achieving a minimum goal: the second round of the best 30.

"We want to turn the half-day ticket into a day ticket," says Jürgen Graller, summarizing the project in a succinct way.

And with that, the national coach brings the German women's dilemma to the point.

Because the other half of the two-woman team, which the German Ski Association (DSV) has nominated for the first run on the Rettenbachferner, has to fight hard to make it into the second run.

“Going into the 30” is her goal, says Andrea Filser, who finished 42nd in the giant slalom classification last season - and was not only the best of her team, but the only one who ever scored points. At the age of 28, she has also tried her hand at the World Cup for a while, but she, too, had to take two complete winters off because of complicated injuries: a cruciate ligament tear, a lower leg fracture - these are the negative highlights of her personal bulletin.

After all, Andrea Filser can start the new season with the still fresh win of a World Cup medal, because last February she was instrumental in ensuring that the German skiers won bronze as a team in Cortina. The competition was "only" held in parallel races, which are still controversial in the alpine scene, but at least there was a lasting sense of achievement: "There is more dynamism when everyone sees what is possible," says Andrea Filser about the effects of the Cortina coup on the entire team.

The thrust may even carry through the winter to the all-important major event of the season: the Olympic Games.

Andrea Filser excludes with a sporty tunnel vision that these games are taking place in Beijing and are also politically controversial: "My personal goal is to get to the Olympics," says the sports soldier about her season plan.

“I have to qualify for that first.

Then I can comment on the debates. "

Graller exemplifies a similarly pragmatic approach to the difficult conditions of his trade.

“We just want to do our sport.

The ski association has a calendar that we have to bow to. ”He makes no secret of the fact that he would prefer to host the Olympic Games in Åre or Cortina.

But he sees his primary task in the fact that a German skier can recommend herself for the Olympics.

Because even Graller cannot avoid saying that the basic discipline of alpine skiing in the second year after the resignation of Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg is still "the Achilles heel" of the German team, as he puts it.