Manuel Feller in an exclusive interview about Linus Strasser and his defeat against Marco Odermatt

Looking back at Strasser's last two wins in Kitzbühel and Schladming, Feller also admitted: “I'm a little jealous of his last two wins. Winning in Kitzbühel and Schladming is a big thing.”

The successes of Strasser, who lives in Kitzbühel, show “what a great skier he is” and demonstrate his mental strength, and he continues to be the leader in the slalom classification from Austria.

Feller also spoke about his back pain, which hampered him for a long time and limited his performance.

Despite the problems, he never gave up and continued to develop. “Sometimes the best thing was tenth or fifteenth place when that was no longer physically possible,” Feller explained. “But sometimes it was a victory.”

The overall World Cup third-place finisher came to a mixed conclusion about his narrow maiden win in the World Cup giant slalom in Schladming, when he did not win despite leading by 0.96 seconds after the first run.

On the one hand, he sees the fact that “as a perfectionist and a critical athlete” he lost the race on the finish slope. But: “On the other hand, I desperately needed points to stay in the top 15 in this discipline and continue to get good starting numbers in the following races.”