‘Amazing’ 24 hours ends in women’s Parallel gold for Tviberg

The new women’s Parallel world champion Maria Therese Tviberg has gone through just about every emotion possible in the past 24 hours.

The 28-year-old, who has never been on a World Cup podium before, was a huge part of driving Norway to the semi-final of the Team Parallel on Tuesday. Then, with a first World Championship medal within her grasp, Tviberg fell heavily and was ruled out of the final. Watching on from the sidelines, she could only watch as Norway lost out on gold in agonising fashion in the final race of the day.

Fast-forward 24 hours and, having patched up her bruised body, Tviberg flew through the rounds of the women’s parallel, before dominating three-time world champion Wendy Holdener in the final.

“I’ve never had a (individual) medal before and just to do that is amazing and then a gold on top of that, you can hear my voice is shaking. I always have stuff to say and I am speechless,” a smiling Tviberg said, having powered to a 0.67 victory margin over silver medallist Holdener.

The new champion then explained just how she had climbed off the snow and on to the top of the podium.

“I was lucky I had a back protector on and I landed on my back so I am just a little bruised,” Tviberg said. “But now I have so much adrenaline and it’s super warm here so it’s all good.”

Her skiing throughout the competition was better than “good”. Powerful from the off, she took her first major scalp in the quarter-finals, roaring past recent World Cup slalom winner Lena Duerr. Next up, she faced teammate Thea Louise Stjernesund and produced one of the runs of the day to come from behind in the second leg to beat the eventual bronze medallist by 0.06 seconds.

And when it all really mattered, Tviberg proved to herself and the rest of the world that she is a force to be reckoned with, leaving Holdener, one of the all-time greats, in her wake.

“After I qualified for the final I cried the whole way up and (when) I came to the top I was still crying and he (her coach) looked me in the eyes and (said) ‘breathe, you got this’. And I was like, ‘yeah, I got this’,” Tviberg said, the emotion still clear in her voice.

For Holdener it is a second silver medal of the Championships, after her efforts in the Alpine combined. And, with her favoured slalom still to come, the Swiss star was in high spirits at the finish.

“After yesterday’s team event, I guess I was an outsider, I didn’t ski really good, I drifted a lot. So, I knew yesterday if I wanted to win something today I had to improve,” Holdener revealed. “And I am really happy I improved that much and could fight for gold.”

Stjernesund rounded off a superb 24 hours for Norway by finally ending Courchevel native Marie Lamure’s dream run. It was another impressive performance from Stjernesund, but it was not quite what the noisy crowd wanted.

The 21-year-old Lamure had arrived for her first major championship race having only raced 17 times on the World Cup circuit before, with a best ever finish of 20th.  But roared on by thousands, many of whom know her personally, the local knocked out defending champion Marta Bassino in the opening round and was on the verge of a shock bronze medal when her binding popped on a rut and left her without a ski. She was neck-and-neck with Stjernesund in the second leg of the small final at the time.

“That was totally amazing, unbelievable. I am at my home, so I wanted to just show myself, do my skiing, be relaxed without any pressure. That is what I tried to do and it worked,” Lamure said.

“Right now I am a bit disappointed because the medal was so close but at the same time I am so happy and it’s such a relief to show the real me.”

The new fan favourite will get a second chance in the women’s slalom on 18 February but before that the giant slalom skiers will go for gold on Thursday, 16 February, first run 09:45 local time.