Lake Louise: Francis clinches DH, SG spot

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Kevin Francis clinched a start spot Friday in both the first World Cup downhill and super G races of the season as the U.S. Ski Team filled its final openings for the weekend races in the Canadian Rockies.

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Kevin Francis clinched a start spot Friday in both the first World Cup downhill and super G races of the season as the U.S. Ski Team filled its final openings for the weekend races in the Canadian Rockies.
    "The visibility was pretty tough — there was a lot of fog and it was colder, pretty chilly — but we filled the last two spots in each race," head coach Phil McNichol said. The U.S. Ski Team will have eight men Saturday in the downhill and seven Sunday in super G.
    WCSN.com will video stream coverage each day from Lake Louise at 2:30 p.m. ET while live timing is available (at 9:30 a.m. ET) via https://livetiming.usskiteam.com.
    "We filled those last two spots in each race with the last downhill training run," McNichol said. Austrians filled the top five places with Bode Miller seventh — his second top-10 of the three runs, and Steven Nyman, who had the fastest time Thursday in training, finished eighth with four more Americans in the top 30.
    "Two in the top 10, six in the top 30 … so, we're making progress," McNichol said.
    Saturday, the downhill will see Miller and Nyman joined by Francis, plus Marco Sullivan, Chris Beckmann, Scott Macartney, JJ Johnson and — the final qualifier — Bryon Friedman, who is returning to World Cup racing after being sidelined since a training crash in January 2005 in France.
    Sunday, the U.S. entries will be Miller, Nyman, Sullivan, Francis, Macartney, NorAm champion Erik Fisher and, the final qualifier, Johnson.
    After the Lake Louise races, the men's World Cup schedule continues with four races during the Visa Birds of Prey events at Beaver Creek, Colorado.