Camille Rast and Wendy Holdener secure gold and silver in the World Championship slalom in Saalbach. For Rast it is a premiere and a satisfaction after difficult times, for Holdener "good as it is".
15.02.2025, 18:22
15.02.2025, 18:31
SDA
Another Swiss day of celebration at the World Championships in Saalbach. This time it's the women. And twice over. Victory for Camille Rast in the slalom, second place for Wendy Holdener. After a superior best time in the first run, the skier from Valais brings her lead to the finish, while the skier from Schwyz jumps from 4th to 2nd place with her best time. 46 hundredths separate the two teammates in the end. Bronze goes to Austria's Katharina Liensberger.
"Unbelievable, I haven't even realized it yet," says Rast after the flower ceremony in the finish area in Saalbach, when more than an hour has already passed since crossing the finish line.
Before the season, the 25-year-old still had no World Cup podium to show for her efforts. Now she is not only a two-time winner of the season and holder of the red start number, but also world champion. "If someone had told me that before the season, of course I would have signed up."
Depression and cruciate ligament rupture
Her success is the product of hard work and an unshakeable belief in herself. Because her career had gone off the rails more than once. So much so that Rast toyed with the idea of giving up skiing.
At 18, she fell ill with Pfeiffer's glandular fever. The illness not only kept her off the slopes for an entire season, but also affected her mentally. The result is depression, at the peak of which - or rather low point - she no longer sees any point in ski racing. Her parents ask her to sell her skis and all her equipment. They don't do it. Rast continues to ski. Until a cruciate ligament rupture in her right knee, suffered almost six years ago, meant the next turning point in her career and the next touchstone for the Valais native.
The 2017 junior world champion has overcome all these obstacles. She regained the joy of life and ski racing and saw a purpose in her everyday sporting life again. "I'm glad that I never stopped and always kept fighting. It shows that anything is always possible. Sometimes it just takes a little more time. I am very proud."
Ankle injury and stroke of fate
Wendy Holdener has also had difficult times. Due to a fracture in her left ankle, she had to retire from racing in mid-December 2023 and undergo an operation that put her out of action for the rest of the winter. Another, far more painful blow followed during her injury break.
Holdener's brother Kevin passed away in February 2024 at the age of just 34 after a long battle with cancer. It was a drastic experience, as he was not only her older big brother by four years, but also an idol, later her manager and constant companion, "my soulmate and best advisor", as she said. She is extremely proud of herself and the path she has taken, said Holdener after winning silver in the slalom.
Holdener has won three World Championship medals in Saalbach. Three silver medals. In the team competition, in the team combined and now also in the slalom, her favorite discipline. It is emblematic of the career of the woman from Schwyz that she has come 2nd again. She has finished second 19 times in the World Cup, including twelve times behind Shiffrin and twice behind Rast. She also never managed to win gold in the slalom at major events. She took silver behind Shiffrin at her home World Championships in 2017 and silver behind Sweden's Frida Hansdotter at the 2018 Olympic Games.
However, she didn't want to think about losing gold on Saturday. "I didn't quite find my rhythm in the first run, but I made the best of the second run. Camille skied really well. I didn't lose anything. It's good the way it is."
34 years after Vreni Schneider, Switzerland is once again the slalom world champion. This is not the only reason why it is a historic day for Swiss-Ski. There has never been a double victory in a World Championship slalom for Switzerland.
