The Super-G race event in Austria on Sunday was marred by an emailed death threat to star Tina Maze, who was put underpolice protection after receiving threats against her prior to the race.
According to the Associated Press, World Cup skier Tina Maze received bodyguards and police protection at the event after she received an email on Saturday afternoon with a death threat. The Slovenian skier finished fourth in the race, which was won by Anna Fenninger of Austria.
Maze won the downhill event on Saturday and received the email after she became the first skier to collect more than 2,000 points in a season. She had bodyguards close by after the race on Sunday and police announced later that the email came from an anonymous source.
"If somebody is strong and showing good performances and perfect in the thing you are doing, there are people who want to disturb you," Maze said. "I guess it's part of the game but it didn't disturb me that much.
"It shouldn't be part of the game but life is not perfect. It's not nice for me, it's not nice for my team. I haven't seen the email ... they want to ruin your day, ruin the record, but I enjoyed the day 100 percent," Maze said.
Peter Fischer, who is the chief of the organizing committee, said that the email was brought to the attention of the police, who then placed Maze under protection.
"We had to take it seriously, our job is to keep everyone safe here," Fischer said. "Police took over the case and provided protection."
Maze commented about the protection and said that she felt completely safe despite the threat against her in the email.
"I've had police in front my door all the time since yesterday," Maze said.
Fenninger won the race over Maze as well as Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who finished 0.20 behind Fenninger, giving her a second win of the year and her third career victory. Maze has already clinched the overall season title and now has 2,074 points.
"I was not good in the turning section, I don't know what it is, maybe a question of confidence," said American Julia Mancuso, who was second in Friday's super-G on the same slope.
Maze is ahead of Mancuso in the 420-365 in the super-G standings and is coming off of a gold medal in the super-G at the world championships in Austria last month that saw Olympian Lindsey Vonn suffer an injury where she needed to be airlifted away from the slope.