First came the great common howling.

Then the broadest beam.

And both emotions were expressions of the greatest joy.

Lena Dürr experienced the ski weekend of her life in Levi, Finland - and after her two third places in the World Cup slaloms on Saturday and Sunday could hardly believe her luck.

“Unbelievable” she said about her strong performance, which she described as “pure pleasure skiing”.

Achim Dreis

Sports editor.

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For more than a decade, the Munich resident has been participating in the Alpine Ski World Cup, specializing in the technical disciplines, but only now, after more than 170 appearances and at the age of 30, has she obviously made the breakthrough. “It was an eternal journey,” she said herself, and added: “Better late than never”.

Only the two undisputed stars of the slalom scene, overall World Cup winner Petra Vlhova from Slovakia and the four-time slalom world champion Mikalea Shiffrin (USA), were placed ahead of Lena Dürr on both days. Vlhova won both times ahead of Shiffrin. And Dürr was less than a second short of victory. At her first award ceremony she stood next to the stars with wide eyes, but quickly got used to it. “It can be endured on the podium,” said the beaming third on Sunday after plunging into the elite class again at sunset north of the Arctic Circle.

With her double success, she also achieved an important victory in the family hierarchy in one fell swoop, because she doubled her father's World Cup record.

Peter Dürr, born in 1960, only made it onto the podium once in his career, in 1988 in the downhill from Schladming in third place.

However, the dad had already been a World Cup participant in windsurfing before he focused on alpine skiing.

Dürr, on the other hand, focused on the two boards from the start of her career.

She has even won a race, in Moscow in 2013.

But that was just a parallel race, and this form of competition is still not really taken seriously in the alpine scene.

Success in a "real slalom", as Lena Dürr herself said, means much, much more to her: "I'm just happy."

The almost exuberant reactions from teammates and competitors showed that there was no one who didn’t allow her the late breakthrough from the heart - apparently almost longed for it. Double winner Petra Vlhova also did not fail to congratulate the double third placed. She has worked hard for many years and has honestly earned her success, said the Slovakian. An assessment that national coach Jürgen Graller shared, but which he also included the entire support team. Service people and physiotherapists also worked very hard for this success.

When Dürr secured the longed-for podium place on Saturday from sixth place after the first run in the final run, Andrea Filser, Jessica Hilzinger, Marlene Schmotz and Emma Aicher fell into their arms one after the other: “So cool, we all cried together “, Said the honoree afterwards in the ARD.

The next day, the German skiers stood ready again together, again when the temperature was around minus ten degrees, everyone was hugging each other, but this time there was more laughter.

The good overall mood contributed to the fact that the others also achieved decent results.

Emma Aicher, who was only 18 years old, finished 14th and 23rd with the high starting numbers 60 and 59. Jessica Hilzinger (25th and 22nd) also landed in the points twice.

And Andrea Filser took 18th place on Sunday.

As an “indescribable weekend”, Graller summed up the overall performance: “The team is on the right track,” said the national coach: “The deep has plunged through.” For many years, the German technicians had not gotten far beyond the status of “running further” . Eight years ago, Maria Höfl-Riesch last took third place in a slalom - it was in Lienz. Höfl-Riesch had even won three times in Levi, and it was possibly a good omen, because Lena Dürr happened to go to the start on Saturday in a gondola named after Höfl-Riesch.

The alpine entourage doesn't have much time to breathe and celebrate.

On Sunday they flew from Lapland to Helsinki, from where the return flight to Munich is planned for this Monday.

On Tuesday the journey continues to Killington on the east coast of America, where the next World Cup races are due at the weekend: a giant slalom and a women's slalom - with the unexpected prospect of a German co-favorite in the competition.