Muzaferija after the end of the season: I am happy, this is good for the future of my career

(Patria) - The last race of the season for women within the Audi FIS Ski World Cup was held today in Saalbach, Austria, and Elvedina Muzaferija (24), who qualified for the first final for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the biggest world competition in alpine skiing in two disciplines, took 16th place. Today, the skier from Visoko completed the 2,880-meter downhill course in 1:46.96 minutes, 1.88 seconds behind the first-placed Cornelia Huetter (31).

With today's victory, Huetter secured points for the Small Crystal Globe, while the best skier in the overall World Cup standings, Lara Gut-Behrami (32), was positioned behind Muzaferija.

“I started very well today, my first two splits were very good. However, today, to achieve a good result, you really needed a lot of luck with the weather. The wind was blowing a lot, and with bib number nineteen, it also got cloudy, so the visibility was nowhere near as good as it was with the previous numbers.

Nevertheless, I am happy that I made it to the final in Saalbach at all. I got to know the course for next year's World Championship, and I think this is a good season and a good start for the future of my career,” Muzaferija stated after the downhill race, which was postponed and interrupted due to strong winds and an accident involving a course marshal.

She also briefly commented on yesterday's Super-G final and the unfortunate imbalance in the second sector of the course.

“Yesterday I had very good speed. Before crashing, I was the fastest and had a significant lead over the leader. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the Super-G race,” said Muzaferija.

Over the past two days, our skier also had the greatest support from the audience to date, and along with her most loyal fans from Visoko, including Mayor Mirza Ganić, supporters from Sarajevo and Bjelašnica arrived in Saalbach with two banners specially created for this occasion. Furthermore, her participation in the World Cup final attracted many Bosnians and Herzegovinians living in Austria, Switzerland, and Slovenia, as evidenced by the beautiful live broadcast footage, as well as the impressions of Adnan Jašarspahić and Dario Božić, editors and sports journalists from FTV, who also traveled to Austria.

Muzaferija reached the World Cup final with a series of good results in the second half of the season, during which she collected 82 points in the Super-G discipline, finishing in 23rd place in the discipline standings. With 69 points, she ranked as the 24th best skier in the downhill discipline. In the overall standings, with 151 World Cup points, she reached 54th place in the world's best female skiers ranking.

In today's 68th World Cup appearance, along with Laura Pirovano (22) and Victoria Olivier (19), the twenty-four-year-old Muzaferija started as one of the three youngest competitors, and there is no doubt that our best skier will position Bosnia and Herzegovina even better in the world skiing elite in the upcoming season, which also brings us the World Championship.