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June 12, 2004 Eberharter set age records . . . and other curious facts from the 2004 World Cup season By Richard Hegglin When he won the season opener at Chamonix, Austria's Stephan Eberharter demolished the age record. His age that day was 34 year, 9 months and 17 days. The previous old-timer record was held by Leonhard Stock, who won the Groden downhill in 1992 at age 34 years, 8 months and 19 days. Ebarharter went on to win three more races this season, advancing the age record each time. At Kvitfjell, he left it at 34 years, 11 months and 17 days. He turned 35 on March 23, 2004, and plans to race again this coming season -- so the age record remains under threat. Eberharter's achievement underscores the fact that speed events -- downhill and super G -- are now dominated by experienced veterans. World Cup champion Hermann Maier is 32 years old. Hannes Trinkl and Paul Accola have regained top-ten rankings at 36 and 37, respectively. Of the winter's race winners, only four were under 30: Didier Cuche, Michael Walchhofer, Antoine Deneriaz and, the youngest, Bjarne Solbakken (26 1/2). Ebarharter won his first downhill at age 32, and has now won the downhill World Cup three times. This hat trick has been achieved previously only by Franz Klammer (who won the cup four times, 1975-78), Franz Heinzer (1991-93) and Luc Alphand (1995-97). With 29 World Cup victories, Eberharter has now moved ahead of Franz Klammer on the lifetime victories list. That list now looks like this: 1. Ingemar Stenmark, 86 Anja Paerson's streak Anja Paerson scored eleven victories en route to her World Cup championship. This makes her home town Tarnaby, population 900, the most successful skiing locality in the world. Counting Ingemar Stenmark's Cups, Tarnaby scores an Overall World Cup for each 225 inhabitants. Paerson won four of her races by over a second, including a GS at Zwiesel where her margin was 1.98 sec over Tina Maze. Best margin on the men's side was Eberharter's 1.21 sec victory at Kitzbuhel, over Daron Rahlves. Eberharter also suffered the narrowest defeat of the season, when Lasse Kjus trimmed him by .001 sec in the Hahnenkamm. The ladies saw a tie for the win at the Haus super G, bertween Maria Riesch and Caroline Montillet -- the last time this happened was ten years ago at the Cortina super G, when Pernilla Wiberg and Alenka Dovzan tied. Second run blues, and a breakthrough Austria's Manfred Pranger won four first runs of slalom, but has yet to win a race. Pranger wasn't the only man who had trouble defending a first run lead. Only Kalle Palander (at Flachau), Benjamin Raich (at Wengen) and Bode Miller (at St. Anton) managed to win after holding the lead in the first run. (Paerson managed it three times, and three other women -- Poutiainen, Riesch and Schild -- each did it once). And Michael Walchhofer -- a World Cup champion and a winner of combined events -- posted his first "real" World Cup victory at Lake Louise. Maier rules the Beav Hermann Maier has now won eight races at Beaver Creek, out of 12 starts, including the 1999 World Championships.
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