Maier is back in the saddle

Hermann Maier's arrival at the world championships here yesterday marked one of the most incredible comebacks in sporting history. It also gives the sport's major event, which begins with tomorrow morning's men's super-giant slalom, a significant shot in the arm.

Eighteen months ago doctors were fighting to save Maier's leg after a motorbike accident that seemed certain to end his career. The selection of the man they call "the Hermannator" to the fiercely competitive Austrian team is an achievement that few would have thought possible and without last Monday's win in a super-G at Kitzbühel might still have been in doubt.

Maier will start in tomorrow's super-G, a discipline he dominated for three years before the accident in August 2001 damaged his right leg.

As he arrived in St Moritz yesterday he said: "Certainly I am very surprised that a lot of things have happened over a very brief period of time, and after my victory at Kitzbühel I am very proud to be part of the strongest Austrian team in the super-G. It was a tremendous challenge for me and I am personally very proud of this."

Since his crash, when a 79-year-old German driver made an illegal turn across a road outside Radstadt, Maier has repeatedly said his only goal is to ski again without pain.

A year after his accident he was back training in Chile with the Austrian team, but was sidelined again after only a week. A heavy landing in downhill training rammed the back of his boot into his calf, causing more muscle damage.

Hans Pum, the chief Austrian coach, said that if anyone was made to overcome such adversity it was Maier, the strongest and most single-minded of skiers.

Maier, 30, has defied the odds throughout his career. At 17 he was dropped from the Austrian junior team and worked during the summer as a bricklayer and in the winter as a ski instructor in his home town of Flachau.

When in 1996 the World Cup tour came to Flachau he was offered a start spot as a course opener and set a time that would have placed him on the podium. Since then he has new levels in every area of the sport. His training programme was strictly controlled, he carried his training bike with him on the tour, spending hours on it every day. He single-handedly changed skiing technique, his immense power allowing him to carve a tighter line than any of his rivals dared ski.

It was this aggressive style that earned him his nickname, and the 1998 Nagano Olympics confirmed him as a major force in the sport. He has won 41 times in the World Cup.

A gold medal in these championships, though, is probably beyond even his expectation. "I have never been to St Moritz, never skied on the course, and I know this place only from James Bond movies and polo," he said.