Overjoyed, ski racer Linus Straßer clenched his fists and stretched his skis up on the legendary Chuenisbärgli.

Exactly one year after his brilliant second place in Adelboden, the 29-year-old from TSV 1860 Munich raced onto the podium again on Sunday in the same place.

Thanks to a strong second slalom run in poor visibility, the technician improved by eleven places to third place.

With his best result of the season so far, the Bavarian broke the association's internal norm for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

"The conditions are incredibly difficult and I managed not to make any huge mistakes," said Straßer, commenting on his success on ARD.

Now it's time to take a two or three day break.

Most recently, Straßer fell short of expectations.

Surprising winner Strolz

In front of thousands of ski fans, the victory went to the Austrian Johannes Strolz as a complete surprise. The 29-year-old from Vorarlberg had only once raced into the top ten in his career. At the moment of his greatest sporting success, he could no longer hold back his tears. Compatriot Manuel Feller came in second. “More than a deserved winner, unbelievable. I think it'll take him a few days to realize that, ”said Feller happily with the sensational winner Strolz.

Out of the five-man squad of the German Ski Association, apart from Straßer, only David Ketterer made it into the finals of the best 30. With 23rd place, the sports soldier from SSC Schwenningen achieved the second-best result of his career. "I'm very happy today that I was in the second round again," said the 28-year-old. In 2018, Ketterer was in the top 30 for the last time. Anton Tremmel, Julian Rauchfuss and Fabian Himmelsbach had missed the final run.

Meanwhile, ski racer Lena Dürr has finally overcome her intermediate low at the World Cup in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

In the penultimate slalom before the Olympic Games in Beijing, the 30-year-old finished fourth.

Dürr missed her third podium this winter in Petra Vlhova (Slovakia )’s fifth win of the season, ahead of Wendy Holdener (Switzerland) and Anna Swenn Larsson (Sweden) by 0.23 seconds.

From a German point of view, Emma Aicher's performance was also encouraging.

The 18-year-old fulfilled the DOSB norm for the Winter Games (4th to 20th February) with 13th place, which she took at the same time with two other runners.

Aicher, who had contributed to the German bronze medal in the team competition at the World Cup last February, had previously finished 14th in Levi, Finland, in November.

Dürr had started the season with two thirds and one fifth, but could not meet expectations in the two previous slaloms with positions 18 and 11.

Now she benefited, among other things, from the departure of Mikaela Shiffrin in the second run.

The American, who was seventh in the giant slalom victory of Sara Hector (Sweden) the day before, remains ahead in the overall World Cup - just ahead of rival Vlhova.

The Germans' joy about Dürr and Aicher was also mixed with concern about Paulina Schlosser.

The 20-year-old from the Swabian Alb fell in the first round of her second World Cup race on Saturday, suffering a fracture of her lower leg.