Photo: U.S. Ski & Snowboard

In the kickoff for men’s HomeLight Foundation Series NorAm season at Copper Mountain, four Americans finished in the GS top 10 with Jett Seymour in third, George Steffey in fifth, Bridger Gile in sixth, and Brian Mclaughlin in seventh.

Seymour was the fastest American, finishing in third behind Andreas Zampa and Fabian Gratz. Seymour noted that the field was competitive, saying, “It was great to start racing some NorAms again. We had some higher-level racers here today and it was a lot of fun to compete against them in the USA.”

Zampa previously raced the Copper NorAms in 2015 and 2017, but this is the first time he has cracked the top 10. Gratz has started four NorAms in his career, finishing in second three times, including today.

This was not Seymour’s first time on a NorAm podium, but this is the first time he has finished in the top three in a NorAm GS. To secure his third place position, he had to make up some time on the second run as he finished 14th on the first. He did exactly that, and moved up on the result sheet after putting down the second-fastest time on course in the second run. He has similar plans for his day tomorrow, saying, “I will approach tomorrow the same as a I approached today. Just ski with aggression and try to keep breathing at the bottom of the course.”

The conditions held up, even after two days of women racing on the same hill. According to Seymour, “The snow was amazing. Copper Mountain, with the help of a bunch of coaches, did an amazing job preparing the surface. Both of the courses had some turn in them and that caused some serious fatigue for the last 10gates, especially at 12,000 feet. It was my first time skiing GS on this hill and I thought it was a really fun hill. There was a little of everything. Lots of micro-terrain and some flats some steeps.”

Liam Wallace was the fastest Canadian today, his total time was 0.64 seconds outside the top 10 to finish in 12th place. His Canadian teammates Riley Seger, Sam Mulligan, and Declan McCormack were also in the top thirty.

RESULTS

The men will race GS again tomorrow, check back in for the recap after the race.