A Few Tech Young 'uns to watch

Angelica Kauffmann, Hebe tränkt den Adler des Jupiter

 (Hebe Waters Jupiter's Eagle) (detail), c1801–1807. Oil on canvas.

  Predicting young, breakthrough talent is a fun, riskless exercise…because it’s impossible, for the most part. With rare exceptions, the national teams’ Equipe/A squads are proven veterans. 28-year-old Julia Scheib, for example, is Austria’s youngest Equipe member. 2023 was her first full WAWC season, after eight years of grinding FIS and European Cup. She has 61 total WAWC starts, all Giant Slalom except for 7 Super G.

    Austria has exceptionally hard-core standards. To identify true sapling breakout, we’ll need to look at teams who for various reasons have younger, less-experienced racers on their top roster.

    B-team members often, and C-team members occasionally, are given WAWC starts during the season—for experience, and to fill in for A-listers who are injured, or otherwise disinclined to run that weekend. Getting enough starts to make an impression in the season’s discipline standings is rare, but can happen.

While “young” is relative—almost everyone’s young from my perspective—twenty-two is the limit for this post. These are racers who haven’t made a big move. So Emma Aicher and Lara Colturi aren't here. We're eyeing potential.

Slalom and Giant Slalom; Speed in a post soon to follow.

13 November - Will finish this post off as well after Levi. Behind schedule.

We begin with Sweden's Cornelia Oehlund. Pretty much a Slalom specialist, she turned 21 August 2026. Had wretched luck at her first Olympics. She finished 3d in the first Slalom run at Cortina. Then one of her poles snapped on the second run! This doesn’t happen. You can lose a pole by snagging a panel, but for a pole to break?! She DNFd and was unsurprisingly perturbed. Caitlin McFarlane, 12^th, was the nearest 1^st run finisher not a household name. (I'm a McFarlane fan; she's covered in this June's post on France's national team.)

Cornelia has 43 WAWC starts, a decent number for her age. (32 European Cup starts, with 2023 EOS SL 3d.) In 37 WAWC Slalom starts, she has 23 points finishes, including 17xT20; 5xT10, with a 5^th and 3x7th her best results. The 5^th, 23 February 2025 at Sestriere, was 0.84 behind Mikaela’s combined winning time. Get this: Oehlund was 23d 1^st run—then fastest 2^nd run! 1.24 better than Shiffrin’s 4^th place. Yes, she had a clean track from 23d, but laid it down for all to see and missed podium by 0.20. Gritty persistence.

As for injuries, in early 2025 Cornelia broke a thumb. Raced anyway. But she suffered a “mild” concussion and shoulder bruising in a training crash last month. Started Sölden and DNFd, swinging way wide on a turn near main pitch’s end. She looked a bit weary to me, perhaps ending the run on purpose. Hopefully she’ll be in fine fettle for Levi.

Building on last season's EOS SL 12^th and 2025's 16^th Oehlund is moving decisively. I think she'll be an EOS Slalom T5 fixture within a few years.

Cornelia Oehlund. IMO, by 2028 a Slalom podium contender for the next decade.

Anna Trocker, an Italian who turns 18 just before New Year’s, has 8 WAWC starts—GS 8^th, SL 9^th, SL DNF1, GS DNF1, GS 4xDNQ—and I think she’ll be a major player within a few years. Research revealed fairly scant experience, but what I’ve seen is mostly impressive.

    Slalom and Giant Slalom gold—2026 FIS Junior World Championships at Narvik last March.

    Slalom and Giant Slalom gold—2026 Italian National Championships at Sestriere last April.

    Slalom Gold—2025 Italian National Jr Championships. Dobbiaco, December 2025.

    Nor-Am—SL 1^st, 8^th, DNF from 3 starts; GS 1^st, 2^nd, 5^th, DNF from 4 starts.

    FIS –  7 SL starts—1^st and 2^nd; 5xDNF. GS 2^nd and a couple T10 from 7 starts.

    Total of 28 SL starts across all categories, for 7x1st and 2x2nd podium finishes; 4xT10; 14xDNF.

    Total of 29 GS starts across all categories, for 4x1st, 3x2nd, 2x3d; 7xT10; 8xDNF/DNQ.

    Dry figures, yeah, but we must consider them absent much other info. She comes through at big events. The Italian national team thinks highly of her—equipe squad at seventeen is rare. Missed Sölden cut by 0.21.

    No bad injuries/surgery I can see. She took a painful training tumble on the Rettenbach (Sölden) glacier piste a week before the race. But shook it off and it apparently wasn’t a problem. So here’s to a successful season, Anna!

Anna Trocker

Switzerland’s Dania Allenbach is another precocious person. Though Sölden was just her fifth WAWC start (all GS), she’s coming off a sterling European Cup season. Sixth Overall in EC, the Giant Slalom title in pocket with 498 points. (She also contested DH and SG with modest results; no Slalom.)

    From ten starts, she went 1^st, 2^nd, 2x3d, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 10^th, 12^th, 16^th. So 40% podium finishes, 80% T10; NO DNFs! Of her 20xGS EC career starts, Dania’s 9xT10, with a single DNF. In fact, of her 28 European Cup total starts, she has just one each DNF and DNQ, and seven non-points finishes.

    She missed 2^nd run Sölden by 0.06.

    2026 Swiss National GS Champion (St. Moritz, last April). Excellent FIS GS record, too. From the career 22 starts between November 2023 and March 2025, Allenbach has just four non-points scoring results—39^th and 3xDNF. (Finishes above 30^th earn no points. It’s why every Tech competitor earns at least a point for 30-racer second runs, unless she DNFs, doesn’t start, or is disqualified. With no second run, non-points finishes occur in nearly every SG and DH. WAWC races rarely lack 30 competitors.)

    Extraordinarily consistent, Dania’s right there to begin a long run. She’s sitting on top of the World.

Dania Allenbach

Elisabeth Bocock’s on her way to becoming a Tech Big Person, IMO—and a perhaps a legit 3-discipline Overall contender. Turned 21 just a couple months ago, a scant 30 WAWC starts under her bib (22 GS; 8 SL), Mary’s 2025 Nor-Am campaign is a precocious marker: Overall 2^nd; SL 3d; GS 1^st; SG 11^th. Twelve races total/4 per discipline. 5 wins, a 2^nd, 4xT10; DNF and DSQ, at 19 years old. Spiffy.

    Last season was a rough WAWC start: GS 12^th best finish, with 2xT20, and 6xDNF1. That the DNFs were all first runs says to me she goes hell-for-leather.

Elisabeth Bocock