COURCHEVEL – Greek racer AJ Ginnis was able to give his country an amazing result at the World Alpine Skiing Championships on Sunday.
Ginnis was in second place with Lucas Braathen of Norway in the opening slalom run of the last event in the world, 0.13 seconds behind Austrian leader Manuel Feller.
Greece has never won a medal at the World Championships in any Olympic sport on snow or ice.
“I have no pressure. I ski for Greece so I ski for free,” Ginnis said, adding with a laugh that he prayed to “all 12” Greek gods before the race.
Ginnis was already the first skier from Greece on a World Cup podium when he finished second in the last slalom before the World Championships.
“Two weeks ago I was at an incredible peak in winter sports with a first podium finish at a World Cup event for Greece. And a medal would be amazing,” he said. “I’m not thinking about that now. I will only focus on the second run. And you better bet I’ll give everything I’ve got.”
Ginnis, whose wife is American, was born in Greece. He learned to ski on Mount Parnassus, 2 ½ hours drive from Athens. At the age of 12 he moved to Austria with his father, a ski instructor. He then moved to the United States and competed for the US Ski Team at the 2017 World Championships.
Due to a series of injuries, Ginnis struggled to produce results for the USA team and the American men’s slalom squad was disbanded after the 2017-18 season. That’s when he decided to race for Greece.
Ginnis is coached by two friends, Sandy Vietz and Gaby Coulet.
“Sandy Vietz was a classmate of mine at GMVS (Green Mountain Valley School) and was also a teammate on the US ski team for a few years,” he said. “When I started the Greek team, he was the first person I called to coach me. I offered him pretty much zero salary and I knew he would say yes. That’s why I did this.
“And then Gaby Coulet was a UVM (University of Vermont) skier. He was Sandy’s roommate and best friend. … We realized that we need an extra pair of hands because two people don’t work at the World Cup. So we called Gaby and Gaby was more than happy to quit his job and join us in January. So since then we’ve been three musketeers. These guys would do anything for me. You sacrificed a lot. So it’s a good time and we’re making it work.”
Ginnis doesn’t blame the US team for letting him go.
“All credit goes to them. You developed me. I think for me it was like a will to want to ski for my home country because that’s where I grew up and then was a really injured athlete for them,” Ginnis said.
“So I don’t blame them at all for cutting the team when they did it. Of course that made it harder for me. But, hey, I’m here, I’m second after the first run of the world champions, so I’m not complaining.”
American skier Luke Winters, one of Ginnis’ former teammates, described the Greek’s performance as “impressive”.
“He always had the speed. It’s good to see him consistently using it there,” Winters said. “That’s how the sport works. All of a sudden you get it and some people can go all the way up.”
Feller is chasing his country’s first gold medal at the championships. Austria led the medal table two years ago with five gold medals and has won at least one event on every world since 1987.
Feller fell and injured his hip while warming up before the race, but appeared unaffected by the incident. He avoided risks on the first steep section after the start, but set the fastest intermediate times in the last two sections.
Braathen, who leads the season’s World Cup standings in slalom, started less than three weeks after him was operated on for appendicitis. The Norwegian led Feller by 0.41s halfway through, but lost time in the latter part of the leg.
It is Braathen’s first World Championship race, having missed the previous World Championships in 2021 following knee surgery.
In a close race, the top 19 all finished within a second of Feller’s lead.
Linus Strasser of Germany finished fourth, 0.14 seconds back. Defending champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag was fifth, the Norwegian had to catch up 0.35 in the second heat. Olympic champion Clement Noel was 0.64 behind.
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Willemsen reported from Vienna.
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