Franjo Von Allmen and Vincent Kriechmayr win HEAD double victory in the Downhill

Celebration time for the HEAD Worldcup Rebels at the World Championships in Saalbach: Franjo von Allmen and Vincent Kriechmayr win a massive double victory in the Downhill on Sunday. Following Stephanie Venier's victory in the Super-G, this is the second title for the HEAD team at this World Championships.

"The Downhill was a really exciting race. Monney had put in a great run, so when Vincent Kriechmayr clocked a faster time, that took a bit of pressure off. What followed from Franjo von Allmen was simply incredible. They were both totally awesome today," said Racing Director Rainer Salzgeber. "Franjo von Allmen showed the way right from the very first training session. It was a bit warmer, so we were a bit worried whether the equipment was tuned okay. But it worked really well for them. My thanks also go to the two service men Sepp Kuppelwieser and Wilfried Wieser. With Vincent Kriechmayr in particular, we also fine-tuned the way the boots were set-up. Patrick Bechter made absolutely the right decisions there. We've got two World Championship titles in the bag, so this has been a very good first week. It more than makes up for the two very close fourth places. These are results that give us a very positive outlook for week two."

"I'm going to cherish this moment right now"

A lifelong dream has come true for Franjo von Allmen in Saalbach. The Swiss athlete has won one World Cup race so far: the Super-G in Wengen in January 2025. The 23-year-old confirmed his top form this season with second places in the Downhill in Val Gardena, Bormio and Wengen. "I'm going to cherish this moment right now. After the Super-G I reckoned I had nothing to lose, so I decided to ski flat out and take all the risks. I tried to make my own plan, to have fun skiing, and that didn't turn out too badly," said an excited Franjo von Allmen, who was competing in a World Championship for the first time in Saalbach.

"Thank you to all the fans!"

Vincent Kriechmayr crossed the finish line 24 hundredths of a second behind Franjo von Allmen to win the Silver medal. This is the fifth World Championship medal for the 33-year-old Austrian athlete. Previously, Vincent Kriechmayr won two Gold medals in the Downhill and Super-G at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and Silver in the Super-G as well as Bronze in the Downhill in Aare in 2019. "It's an indescribable feeling when you see the No. 1 displayed as you cross the finish line. The atmosphere here is absolutely amazing, it is on a level I have not experienced that often. Thank you to all the fans! Skiing is such a beautiful sport, and the support from the fans makes it twice as great. I have a superb team, superb equipment, and a superb service man - that's what you need to compete on top of the world for so long. It was a very good run. A couple of things could have been better; I was too low on the traverse. I didn't manage to get everything to go as I planned," says Vincent Kriechmayr.

Cornelia Hütter just misses the podium

Cornelia Hütter from Austria finished fourth in the Downhill on Saturday, missing the podium by just 13 hundredths of a second. Emma Aicher once again demonstrated that she is on the way up. The German athlete finished sixth having started with bib number 30 and was only 27 hundredths of a second away from Bronze.