Didier Cuche announcing his decision to retire from World Cup skiing at age 37 (image: TSR television))
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss ski star Didier Cuche, who was named Swiss Person of the Year earlier this week by thousands of television viewers, announced Thursday afternoon that he will retire from the sport at the end of this season.
The 37-year-old’s decision came as no surprise.
But Cuche is not just one of the oldest skiers on the world circuit, he’s been a fixture and a winner for the past 10 years. The announcement was made at Kitzbuehl in Austria, where one of the toughest downhills of the season will take place Saturday. Cuche won it last year, making him, at age 36, the oldest winner of a World Cup event.
The Neuchatel skier was emotional during his press conference but said his weak performance in Wengen last weekend did not play a role in his decision. “You don’t make a decision based on a single race,” he said, but noted that he was distracted by the sense that he needed to make a decision. “i had this gut feeling that the time had come.”
Swiss ski star Didier Cuche
Chamonix, France (GenevaLunch) – Swiss skier Didier Cuche was called “untouchable” by Austrian Klaus Kröll, who came in third, and “an example for the rest of us” by runner-up, 21-year-old Dominik Paris, when Cuche skied flawlessly down the tough Verte des Houches course in Chamonix.
The Saturday 29 January downhill win in one minute 58.91 seconds on the 3.37km course was the first Chamonix victory for Cuche, who at age 36 appears to be in his prime, mentally and physically. Dominik Paris of Italy came in second, 0.67 behind Cuche.
Last week he won the downhill on one of the most difficult runs of the World Cup circuit, the Streif in Kitzbuehel, Austria. Cuche leads the World Cup standings in downhill and is second overall.
Saturday’s race gave him his 16th career first place finish.
Links to other sites: 24 Heures (Fr), Canadian Press
International sports, skiing
Swiss ski star Didier Cuche
Kitzbuehel, Austria (GenevaLunch)- Didier Cuche dominated the field to win his fourth title on the famed Streif run at Kitzbuehel, 22 January. It was also the fourth successive victory for Swiss skiers. Bode Miller looked the likely winner until Cuche produced a stunning run to send the American back into second place by almost a second. The French skier Adrien Théaux took third place to push the Austrians off the podium.
Cuche, age 37, equalled the record of Austrian legend Franz Klammer, who won four times in the 1970s, and also broke the record for the oldest winner of a World Cup event. The skier from Neuchatel has not yet announced when, and if, he will retire.
Maria Riesch won the women’s downhill at Cortina in Italy. Her friend and rival Lindsey Vonn came in third after almost crashing. It was the 14th successive downhill won by the pair, with nine for the American and five for the German.
Links to other site: TSR
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Monday 20 September is a holiday in much of Switzerland, the Jeûne Fédéral. GenevaLunch, based in Vaud, will be providing limited news coverage. Swiss weekend news highlights include:
SOCIETY – Four people are dead and 17 injured after a woman went on a shooting spree in Loerrach, Germany, near Basel, in a family dispute, setting off an explosion that provoked a fire. Media reports are contradictory, but it appears that the woman shot her former companion, their child and shot at others in a nearby hospital before she was shot dead by police in a shootout (Reuters).
SPORTS – Skier Didier Defago, on crutches Sunday 19 September after surgery for torn knee ligaments Friday, told journalists he has no intention of quitting. The 32-year-old Olympic downhill champion crashed last Wednesday during training in Zermatt, when the tips of his skis touched as he was going 110 kph.
PEOPLE – Russian billionnaire’s Geneva divorce battle now includes one of Florida’s most colourful pieces of property, reports Forbes magazine. Dmitri Rybolovlev, number 79 on Forbes’s list of the world’s wealthiest people, was sued for divorce in Geneva by his wife Elena in 2008. She has now asked the Swiss court to enforce a March court order, according to Forbes, to freeze an 18-bedroom, $48 million (assessed price) home she claims her fertilizer businessman husband is trying to hide behind business structures. The house was sold, reportedly to the couple, by Donald Trump who bought it from another magnate, Abe Gossman, who later went bankrupt.
POLITICS – Switzerland’s efforts to free two Swiss businessmen, Rachid Hamdani and Max Goeldi, have been shrouded in secrecy, but 19 September NZZ newspaper in Zurich reported that a Swiss soldier made a reconnaissance mission to Libya at one point. The newspaper bases its report on a confidential government memo it obtained. The two men were were imprisoned for 1.5 and 2 years respectively by Libya, with Hamdani freed in February 2010 and Goeldi in June 2010. The soldier reportedly traveled as a civilian, with a valid visa.
GENEVA RENTS – Geneva is regularly cited as one of the most expensive cities, with high rent playing a key role, but too much is too much, the president of the finance commission told the Tribune de Geneve, which reports that the justice department is paying CHF196,000 a month rent for a 2,226m2 building on the rue de l’Athenée in central Geneva. It houses, among others, the tribunal for rents and leases.
POLITICS – The US Justice Department announced Friday 17 September that one of the seven people charged with using UBS accounts for tax fraud had been sentenced to the longest prison term yet for such an offense. It also noted that he has been fined $4.4 million for not filing his FBAR forms, “an amount equal to 50 percent of the highest value of his UBS accounts as of December 31 for the years in which he failed to file FBAR.” The lengthy Justice Department news release notes: “Federico Hernandez, a Manhattan-based financial adviser, was sentenced today to 12 months’ imprisonment for hiding $8.8 million from the IRS by using sham companies to conceal his ownership of secret Swiss bank accounts held at UBS AG. Hernandez was one of seven US taxpayers charged on April 15, 2010, with filing false tax returns and related crimes for hiding Swiss bank accounts from the IRS. Hernandez pled guilty that same day to filing five false tax returns. In addition to the sentence of imprisonment, US District Judge Denny Chin imposed a sentence of six months’ home confinement. Hernandez also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $4.4 million. The sentence imposed on Hernandez is the longest term of imprisonment to date for hiding a UBS bank account from the IRS.
Carlo Janka (photo: Swiss Ski)
Garmisch, Germany (GenevaLunch) - Carlo Janka has taken the lead in World Cup ski standings, with a total of 1,073 points after he won the downhill in Garmisch 10 March, by a hair. He came in at 1:58:45 but second place Mario Scheiber of Austria clocked 1:58:47 and Canada’s Eric Guay and Switzerland’s Patrick Kueng shared third at 1:58:52 in a remarkably close race.
Didier Cuche (image: Swiss Ski)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Didier Cuche, 35, one of Switzerland’s best skiing hopes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver, had surgery Saturday 30 January to mend his right thumb, broken in a fall close to the finish line in Kranjska Gora, Slovakia, during Friday’s World Cup Giant Slalom race. Doctors in Zurich said after the operation that they are very pleased, have put in a plate and seven pins to stabilize it and he should be able to start training again within days. Cuche may be able to join the team in Vancouver, but he and doctors will talk about this further in a press conference Sunday.
Cuche also injured his left knee, an MRI scan showed, but doctors expect him to be able to take up training despite several slight injuries to the knee.
Cuche is currently the world’s top-ranked downhill skier and he is in third place overall. He ended third in World Cup rankings for the 2008-2009 season. A week before his accident he won the legendary Kitzbuehel race in Austria.
Links to other sites: About.com, FIS international ski federation, Swiss Ski
Beaver Creek, Colorado, USA (GenevaLunch) - Swiss Graubuenden skier Carl Janka pulled off the unusual feat of winning three events in one weekend at Beaver Creek, adding the giant slalom event Sunday to his Friday and Saturday downhill and super combined wins. The 23-year-old was bowed to by the last man to take three World Cup races in a row, Aksel Lund Svindal, who did it 2.5 years ago.
Are, Sweden (Geneva Lunch)- American skier Lindsey Vonn locked down her second consecutive World Cup overall title Wednesday 10 March by winning the last downhill of the season. She skied her way to victory with a time of 1 minute 42.49 seconds. Vonn is the first American woman to win two overall titles.
