Benjamin Raich led Austria’s response to Carlos Janka’s challenge after the Swiss’s earlier wins at Val d’Isere. The dominant nation in the sport for years were clearly irritated to see Alpine rivals Switzerland produce an exciting prospect in Janka and enjoy great overall success with Didier Cuche and Didier Defago also doing fine.

Austria’s answer came on the Bellevarde piste, one of the trickiest slopes on the World Cup circuit, where they won all three events.

Raich (pictured) showed the way in Friday’s super-combined, Michael Walchhofer braved awful conditions to take Saturday’s super-G and 20-year-old Marcel Hirscher completed the sweep with his maiden win in Sunday’s giant slalom.

“It was difficult for us to see Switzerland do so well,” said Raich, the most prolific active skier with 35 World Cup wins and now the overall World Cup leader ahead of Janka.

“We knew we would be back but we just didn’t know how long it would take. We knew we had good skiers and were doing everything right in training. It was important for us to keep cool.”

By contrast, Janka, who had scored three wins in as many days a week earlier at Beaver Creek, collapsed under pressure in the French Alpine resort, failing to finish any of the three events.

The 23-year-old‘s struggle was not the only bad news for Switzerland with Cuche, the world super-G champion, having to pull out of Sunday’s giant slalom due to injuries sustained in a training crash.

Janka and Switzerland still have plenty to look forward to in a winter that includes the Vancouver Olympics in February but now realise they have an Austrian challenge to deal with.

“The picture has changed quite a bit now,” Austrian head coach Hans Pum, who had faced heavy criticism in his ski-mad country, said.

“The guys did not panic when things were not going so well and stayed closely together. Winning every event is great. It was an impressive team effort.”

Austria have a gifted youngster of their own in Hirscher, who had a reputation for crashing out after stunning intermediate times.

“I always give 100 per cent, in every training session, in every race, and I was going out of lot because I was pushing hard but that’s the only way I know,” Hirscher said. “If you don’t take risks, it’s not fun.”

Hirscher might not yet be the finished article, but then neither is Janka. There should be many battles between the two, starting with next weekend in Italy with speed events in Val Gardena, then technical ones in Alta Badia.

With each having a young talent as well as seasoned campaigners in their ranks, Austria and Switzerland now look set to battle it out all the way to Vancouver.

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