Tina Maze awarded Skieur d’Or from AIJS

Every year, the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup begins with the first race of the season in Sölden. Tonight, on the occasion of the World Cup opening, the six international athletes Tina Maze, Maria Höfl-Riesch, Michaela Kirchgasser, Tessa Worley, Sarka Strachova and Elena Curtoni ... were presented with purple helmets to officially mark the start of the season. So the race for a place on the podium for season 2013/2014 is now open for the Milka Ski stars.

The bar is set high, since the previous season of the Alpine World Ski Champion- ships in Schladming was the most successful so far for the Milka Ski stars. Effort and good performances deserve to be rewarded, and so - for the first time - Milka donated 1€ to Österreichische Sporthilfe for each won World Cup point. In total, the Milka Ski stars gained a remarkable 4,814 World Cup points, which is the same amount that Milka donated to Österreichische Sporthilfe to help support young ath- letes. As an added incentive for the tenderest team in the Ski World Cup, Milka will continue this campaign in the coming season. Because Milka don't just have part- nerships with top athletes but young talents take very high priority too.

"Skieur d'Or AIJS - Serge Lang Trophy 2013" presented by MILKA.

[caption id="attachment_1976" align="alignright" width="300"] Tina Maze with the Milka Trophy from the AIJS - Photo Milka[/caption]

Following the Milka team presentation this year, the AIJS Ski Journalist Association (International Association of Ski Journalists) also presented the Skieur d'Or to the athlete with the most outstanding performance from the previous season. The ski journalists were in agreement: Tina Maze was very impressive.

For the 30-year old Slovenian, Tina Maze, last season was a record season and she definitely deserved the prize. She was victorious in the first race of the season, just a year ago, and was at the top of the overall World Cup standings - a position she managed to keep until the end of the season. With 2,414 World Cup points, she broke the record set by skiing legend Hermann Maier. Last season, she unbelieva- bly won 1st place 11 times, she took a place on the podium 24 times and she was in the top ten for a World Cup race 32 times. The World Cup was firmly in her hands.

At the World Ski Championships, Tina won 3 more medals: Gold in the Super-G and silver in the Super Combined and Giant Slalom.

Sarka Strachova (formerly Zahrobska), the slalom specialist from the Czech Republic, made an incredible comeback last season after a break due to illness. At the Ski World Cup she achieved 8th place in the slalom. In addition, she was suc- cessful in gaining another top ten placing in this discipline.

The Italian Elena Curtoni is the youngest in the Milka team and was 13th in the Super Combined in Schladming. She also achieved 7th place in the Combined World Cup last season and took another six placings in the top ten. She also won the Ital- ian championship in Giant Slalom in 2013.

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