Didier Cuche won the super-G in Kvitfjell, Norway, and then criticised race officials who announced they were fining him for threatening a referee.
The 36-year-old Swiss racer held off two Austrians to complete the Olympiabakken course in 1min 33.05sec. Klaus Kroell was second, 0.30sec behind, with Joachim Puchner 0.33sec back.
It was a remarkable recovery for Cuche, of Switzerland, after the FIS said it was going to fine him £3,350 and issue him with a written warning for unsportsmanlike behavior.
“First of all, I’m the first one surprised by how fast I went,” said Cuche. “Secondly, I’ve slept only three hours for the past two nights. In the afternoons I’ve spent hours on the phone trying to resolve things that amount to virtually nothing, namely getting five centimetres lobbed off a jump. Thirdly, it’s the first time in my career I’m struggling to appreciate a win."
According to the FIS, Cuche phoned race director Gunter Hujara on Thursday to complain about a dangerous jump on the downhill course used yesterday, and said: "If you don’t take the jump down and anything happens, I will not hesitate to attack you in public."
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Cuche, however, said the referee had overreacted. As a member of the FIS Athletes Commission, the defending World Cup downhill champion said he had called Hujara to reiterate the concerns of several racers over a potentially dangerous jump at the top of course.
"He wasn’t prepared to do anything," Cuche said. "I told him that if anything happened at that jump, he couldn’t expect me not to say I had told him before the race what could happen. He completely flipped out and said I was attacking him and threatening him and I said, ’No, I’m not, I’m just telling you that if something happens I’m going to say that I told you’.
“I’m almost 40 and I feel I was treated like a child. It’s nice to win and to take the lead but yesterday I was ready to end my career.”,
Cuche resigned his position as the athletes' representative on the commission yesterday, arguing that it was pointless for him to speak out on behalf of his fellow skiers if the governing body ignored their concerns. "I was really sad yesterday, not because of my seventh place [in the downhill] but because of the way the FIS and Gunter Hujara are acting with me."
Cuche said the events of recent days had made him reconsider his future in the sport. He said he would postpone his decision until after next week’s World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
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"I’m almost turning 37, I’m not a kid any more, and if Gunter just wants to scream at me every time I say something then I’m in the wrong place," he said.
The win took Cuche past Georg Streitberger of Austria in the overall super-G standings. He is also aiming for a crystal globe in the downhill discipline, where he lies a close second behind Saturday’s winner, Michael Walchhofer of Austria.