At the World Championships in Courchevel, the perpetual unlucky Sebastian Holzmann wrote his own success story. In the slalom, the 29-year-old takes fifth place and is surprisingly the best German. There is not much missing from bronze, but a fifth-place finisher has seldom been happier.
It is sometimes an extremely dubious habit that the first six are invited to the award ceremony at the Ski World Championships. The first three get gold, silver, bronze, the following three warm words and small gifts – but not the main prizes. But sometimes those who are supposedly disappointed are happy to be there. On Sunday, Sebastian Holzmann from the Oberstdorf Ski Club stood guard at the award ceremony for the men’s World Cup slalom – but he didn’t see it that way. Recognizable proud and with a big grin, he grabbed the wooden board-like trophy, which not only got the first three, but also the following three. And so he too as fifth.
“And now for the award ceremony, mega,” Holzmann exclaimed after he had already reported in detail how great the day had been for him. “I’ll definitely remember it here forever, it was very special,” he said. He was 18th after the first run, which was remarkable in itself. “I risked everything,” reported Holzmann, “threw in everything I had and was rewarded. It’s definitely fifth place.” Especially after his previous history: Whenever Holzmann was about to drive his way into the extended world class, injuries threw him back. Most recently it was the patella tendon.
He has experienced “bitter times”, said Holzmann. He has only made it to 54 starts in the World Cup so far, nine times he has finished in the top 20, he has never been better than eleventh – that was almost five years ago. What he is now able to do again, he showed on Sunday – in the race of his life.
Holzmann worked incredibly hard: on the driving style, on the material, with the trainers. Now he has put the huge puzzle together for the first time, and if he had been just 0.24 seconds faster, he would definitely have been one of the lucky three at the award ceremony. Doesn’t matter. “I hope this continues and I can do this for a few more years.”
Meanwhile, tears flowed from his highly bet teammate Linus Straßer – but from bitter disappointment. In a thrilling slalom in the second run, which his trainer Bernd Brunner flagged out, the Munich player lost all chances of gold, silver or bronze. “There are nicer days, I was hoping for more,” he said angrily and had to watch other drivers write their heroic stories. Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, who went from 16th to gold, Alex Vinatzer from South Tyrol in third – and AJ Ginnis, the sensational second from Greece. And of course Sebastian Holzmann.
