STOCKHOLM, 21 February 2004 — Swedish ski great Ingemar Stenmark believes two races on home snow this weekend will take Anja Paerson a big step closer to winning the overall women’s World Cup title.
“She will win (the overall World Cup) unless something happens. But she mustn’t fall out or get nervous, then it could get difficult,” said the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history.
Stenmark, who won three successive overall titles from 1976 to 1978 as well as a record 86 races, comes from the same town of Tarnaby as the 22-year-old and will be in the crowd at Are for today’s super-G and tomorrow’s giant slalom. The famously taciturn Stenmark has been full of praise for a compatriot who looks set to become the first Swede since Pernilla Wiberg in 1997 to take the overall crown.
Paerson has been almost unbeatable in the technical disciplines this season, winning nine races — including six of seven slaloms — and clinching both the slalom and giant slalom titles already.
But despite leading Austrian speed specialist Renate Goetschl by 112 points in the overall standings, she still has her work cut out. There are eight races remaining and Goetschl, the dominant force in the downhill World Cup, can expect to narrow the gap between her and Paerson in today’s super-G. The Austrian is second in the super-G standings, only 14 behind Germany’s Hilde Gerg on 345 points.
