On Saturday, January 11, it’s that time again: the men’s giant slalom at Adelboden in Switzerland is on the FIS World Cup Ski Alpine program. After four of seven giant slalom races this season, Austrian Marcel Hirscher leads the speed event ahead of Ted Ligety of the USA and Alexis Pinturault of France. The Germans Stefan Luitz and Fritz Dopfer are fifth and sixth, and Felix Neureuther is 13th.
Not such bad prospects, then, for Eberhard “Ebs” Riedel, who on the evening of 11.1.14 would still hold a special record – that of being the first and so far the only German to triumph in a giant slalom on the “Chuenisbärgli” in Adelboden, back in 1961 under the flag of the GDR.
His final time for the 2.2 km long and exhausting course of 2:32.1 minutes could not be surpassed by anyone. Starting with bib 7, Roger Staub, the Swiss Olympic champion from Squaw Valley, was up next, and Riedel could never have imagined beating him. After all, the Swiss had already competed in several high-class events that winter, for example in Val d’Isère. Yet in Adelboden Staub clearly had the short end of the stick. He finished 7.8 seconds behind the East German. (…) After rider after rider fell behind Riedel, and many of them showed the toll of the course in the finish area, not only he focused on bib 30, on the mighty Swiss Willy Forrer. (…) The Toggenburger fought his way down with a magnificent performance and finished 1.3 seconds behind Riedel in second place. Many years later Forrer recalled how he had perceived Riedel as “a visually inconspicuous, small but very good athlete.” “Surely back then we thought someone else would win, a West German or Austrian or Italian or Swiss, but Riedel drove very, very well – and was highly regarded for it. It didn’t say, well, an East German wins.”
(from: Traces of the success of Eberhard and Peter Riedel, egoth, 2013)
“That was a special time and a special day,” recalls the Oberwiesenthal resident. “My trainer Joachim Loos could hardly believe that I had won – after all, he had explained the strategy to me: full attack in the upper part and precise line through the lower part.” It is clear that the triple Olympic participant Riedel, who will turn 76 during the Sotchi Games in February, will not miss the race. “But I follow the entire Ski World Cup with keen interest,” he says. “Of course I would be personally delighted if my ‘record’ persisted longer. For German skiing as a sport, however, I wish for a successor to be found in Adelboden as soon as possible.”