YANQING, China (Reuters) – Austria’s Marco “Blacky” Schwarz, the combined world champion, said on Sunday that he had still not completely recovered after injuring his ankle training in November.
“The injury threw me a little. I was well prepared and then I was set back by four, five weeks… Of course the flow was not the same as before. I’m still catching up with this a bit,” the 26-year-old told a virtual news conference.
“In parts it’s working very well in training, but not to the degree that I can say that I’m 100% back where I want to be.
“I might just be lacking a bit of looseness and I hope that I will pick up the famed flow at the Olympics and get where I want to be and where I belong.”
Schwarz is due to compete in the combined, which consists of a downhill and slalom element and is scheduled for Thursday, the giant slalom next Sunday and the men’s slalom on Feb. 16.
He faces tough competition from France’s Alexis Pinturault, Switzerland’s Loic Meillard and his own team mate Johannes Strolz.
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Ken Ferris)
