Katharina Huber makes a fool of herself in front of her audience in Semmering

Could Katharina Huber imagine a worse nightmare? The 29-year-old Austrian has made several World Cup starts – 121 to be precise. But she had to miss the one who meant the most to her. Cruel.

Katharina Huber was looking forward to competing this Saturday on the giant of Semmering, a resort located less than an hour by car from her hometown, Leoben. However, she couldn’t savor a single moment. Bib number 49 on her shoulders, the local of the stage completely missed her start, in a series of two stages.

First, one of her poles slipped while launching, causing a loss of balance which she managed to correct. But as she did so, her skis crossed her heels, causing her to fall flat on her face. The Austrian crashed into the first door and hit a camera with her helmet. Result: his race lasted only two and a half seconds.

On the other hand, her failure will follow her for a little while. Because it left some cute scratches on her face, as she showed off on Instagram, and because the footage will definitely be a staple of end-of-year bloopers.

That said, Katharina Huber can put things into perspective: she is not the only one to have experienced such misfortune. In 2015 in particular, Frenchman Julien Lizeroux (11 World Cup podiums and two at the Worlds to his credit) began the Méribel slalom with an improbable – and unintentional – rollover which disqualified him.

But for the artistic note, it was something other than Katharina Huber.

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