The women’s alpine skiing world cup will feature a giant slalom event on Thursday in Are, Sweden, the first since the Olympics. Getting underway in a World Cup race for the first time since winning a gold medal will be Mikaela Shiffrin. She’ll race in her stronger slalom event on Saturday but certainly is capable of winning the giant slalom races as well. Also in the field will be Megan McJames who finished 30th in Sochi and Julia Mancuso who took a DNF on Thursday. The event consists of two runs three hours apart tomorrow.
WeSupportTheUS.com will have coverage of the results tomorrow night. Another separate women’s giant slalom event will be held in Are tomorrow.
The men made the transition from Downhill racing to Super-G on Sunday in Kvitfjell and for one American it was a welcome change. After finish 54th and 38th in the two downhill races Weibrecht finally got back to the event he’s best at and delivered a seventh place finish. It wasn’t quite the silver from Sochi he won but a nice result none the less. Bode Miller was the second best American, just like in Sochi, as he placed 12th in the event. No other Americans were in the top 30 and the best American from the two downhill races, Travis Ganong, took a DNF.
The next men’s World Cup events will be a giant slalom event and slalom event held in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on March 8th and 9th. They won’t race the super-g again until March 13th in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Check back to WeSupportTheUS.com around those dates for coverage of the events.
After being unable to get the race in on Saturday the conditions improved for Sunday and the race was held. Unfortunately no US women were in the top 15 or even within two seconds of the race winner. Julia Mancuso was the top American in 18th place but her time of 1:36.34 was 2:34 behind the winner. Stacy Cook in 21st and Laurenne Ross in 30th were the only other Americans in the top 30.
Upcoming:
The next women’s alpine skiing World Cup events are two giant slalom events and a slalom event in Are, Sweden from March 6th-8th. The final downhill event will be held in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on March 12th. WeSupportTheUS.com will have full coverage of both Are and Lenzerheide.
They tried and tried to get the downhill in on Saturday at Crans-Montana. After postponing it several times due to fog on the course they eventually ran out of time to get it in and had to move it to Sunday. That meant the cancellation of what would have been the second and final super combined race of the World Cup season. The field will remain the same with six US competitors.
Leanne Smith
Laurenne Ross
Julia Mancuso
Stacey Cook
Jacqueline Wiles
Julia Ford
Check back on WeSupportTheUS.com tomorrow for a recap of the race (assuming they actually get it in this time!).
There’s no doubt who the top downhill skier has been for the US for the last month. Travis Ganong has his third straight top five finish in major downhill competitions with a fourth place finish on Saturday at the second downhill race in Kvitfjell. The fourth place finish moved him into the top 10 in the season standings and he’ll be eager for the next week and a half to pass quickly before the final downhill race of the 2013-14 World Cup season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
The US also got an eighth place finish from Bode Miller while Erik Fisher, Jared Goldberg, and Andrew Weibrecht all finished at least 13 spots better than they had in the downhill on Friday.
Sunday will see the same seven skiers wrapping up the stop in Kvitfjell with a Super-G race. Make sure to check back on WeSupportTheUS.com for coverage of the results of that race.
Travis Ganong continued a strong run of results (fifth place at the Olympics) with a third place finish in Kvitfjell on Friday. Ganong was the only American in the top 15 but Bode Miller, Steven Nyman, and Marco Sullivan were also in the top 21. The same seven Americans will compete in another downhill race on the same course tomorrow.
There was actually a tie at the front between Kjetil Jansrud of Norway and Georg Streitberger of Austria. The two finished in a tie just 0.12 seconds ahead of Ganong.
I’ll be back with coverage of the results from Saturday’s race on Saturday afternoon.
Freshly removed from the Sochi Olympics the US is sending six athletes to Crans-Montana, Switzerland to compete in the downhill at the next FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup stop. The headliner is Julia Mancuso, eighth at the Olympics, but Laurenne Ross (11th), Stacey Cook (17th), and Jacqueline Wiles (26th) are also in the field. There’s just one final downhill race left in this World Cup season so the athletes are jostling for final position.
Leanne Smith
Laurenne Ross
Julia Mancuso
Stacey Cook
Jacqueline Wiles
Julia Ford
There will be a super combined event at Crans-Montana on Sunday. I’ll be back with a preview of that one and a recap of the downhill event tomorrow.
It’s going to be a busy few days for the downhill skiers in Kvitfjell, Norway as they will race separate events on Friday and Saturday (one is to make up for a cancelled event last month) at this stop of the World Cup. Seven Americans are in the field for this one including Travis Ganong who finished fifth in the downhill at the Olympics.
The other Americans are Bode Miller (eight at the Olympics), Steven Nyman (27th at the Olympics), Marco Sullivan (30th at the Olympics), Erik Fisher, Jared Goldberg (15th in the downhill portion of the combined at the Olympics), and finally Andrew Weibrecht (20th in the downhill portion of the combined at the Olympics and the silver medalist in the super-g).
Things get underway at a very early hour on Friday and I’ll have coverage of the results later in the day on Friday.
