Salcher vows to come back from Worlds performance

The Austrian Paralympic champion lost his world titles in 2015 but will use the coming World Cup season to made amends. 14 Nov 2015

Markus Salcher goes down the slope very fast, he seems to lose control

Austria's Markus Salcher

ⒸGetty Images

By Edith Carmichael

“My goals for this season are quite simple. I have to improve my G’s technique and I will do some slaloms.”

With two gold medals from the 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in La Molina, Spain, Austrian Markus Salcher had a lot to live up to the 2015 edition.

However the 24-year-old failed to defend his downhill and super-G world titles in Panorama, Canada, and left with two silver medals instead in the super combined and giant slalom.

“After the first competition, I wasn't happy with my performance,” Salcher said. “Only seventh in downhill and fourth in super-G is not what I expected. For me, it was hard to do the downhill and super-G on an ice slope.

“The other two races which I was competing in were good races. I was able to do my best skiing and in the super combined I was a bit lucky so it was a happy ending.”

The downhill and super-G Paralympic champion is determined to use the 2015-16 World and Europa Cup season, which gets underway on 19 November, to start to make amends.

“I learned a lot from these races. I'm used to talking to my coach and I hack off the speed event. Now I know for the future, that I have to switch my technique even if it's icy.

“My goals for this season are quite simple. I have to improve my G’s technique and I will do some slaloms.”

Salcher’s world champion teammate Matthias Lanzinger himself retired after Panorama, removing one of his great rivals.

“It was good for us to have him with us [in Panorama] because I could compare with him in training,” Salcher said. “We got a lot of media attention as he was well known in Austria because of his accident, and due to my victories in Sochi now I'm well known too.”

Looking forward to the 2015-16 season, Salcher is excited to see who in the team will now come out on top. “He [Matthias] was a leading team member but now it's time that someone else takes this leading position within the team.”

The 2015-16 IPC Alpine Skiing season continues in Landgraaf, the Netherlands, with a Europa Cup on 19 November.