Kvitfjell is a hot spot for U.S. success in speed

Kvitfjell’s downhill run, Olympiabakken, has been pretty good to Americans. To date, U.S. skiers have won 20 percent of the World Cup downhills held there. Kyle Rasmussen won his second race of the ’95 season at Kvitfjell and the first two of Daron Rahlves’ dozen Cup wins came in back-to-back starts in 2000 (he added a super G victory in 2004). Not to mention the ’94 Olympic successes: Tommy Moe gold DH, silver medal SG; Diann Roffe gold medal SG, Picabo Street, silver medal DH.
    This season, with Kvitfjell picking up the downhill cancelled out of Val d’Isere by weather, there’s a good chance some more U.S. fireworks could be in the offing. So far, the U.S. has had someone on the podium in every World Cup downhill.
    The first training run is scheduled for Thursday, with the makeup DH Friday and the scheduled DH Saturday.    
    “The team had gotten to a whole new level,” American Steven Nyman says, “We want podiums. We want hardware, to rack up points. We’re going to be smaller in Norway, Marco [Sullivan] and I will have to hold down the fort. But we know the hill, we understand how to ski it. We’re pretty stoked to head up there.”    
    With two of the remaining three downhills slated this weekend the complexion of the final standings will be largely — if not completely — decided.
KVITFJELL'S DOWNHILL RUN Olympiabakken, has been pretty good to Americans. To date, U.S. skiers have won 20 percent of the World Cup downhills held there. Kyle Rasmussen won his second race of the ’95 season at Kvitfjell and the first two of Daron Rahlves’ dozen Cup wins came in back-to-back starts in 2000 (he added a super G victory in 2004). Not to mention the ’94 Olympic successes: Tommy Moe gold DH, silver medal SG; Diann Roffe gold medal SG, Picabo Street, silver medal DH.
    This season, with Kvitfjell picking up the downhill cancelled out of Val d’Isere by weather, there’s a good chance some more U.S. fireworks could be in the offing. So far, the U.S. has had someone on the podium in every World Cup downhill: Marco Sullivan second at Lake Louise, Steve Nyman second at Beaver Creek, Scott Macartney third at Val Gardena, Bode Miller won Bormio and Wengen and second at Kitzbühel and Sullivan won Chamonix. Seems whatever type of course gets presented, the U.S. has a skier who can win on it. Nyman figures Kvitfjell might be his turn.
    “The team had gotten to a whole new level,” he says, “We want podiums. We want hardware, to rack up points. We’re going to be smaller in Norway, Marco and I will have to hold down the fort. But we know the hill, we understand how to ski it. We’re pretty stoked to head up there.”
    With two of the remaining three downhills slated this weekend the complexion of the final standings will be largely — if not completely — decided.
    Since Lake Louise, Swiss veteran Didier Cuche has been the consummate downhill professional. Though he has just one win, it was the biggie for the season as he smoked the field at Kitzbühel. He also has three second-place finishes a third and a fourth. He’s skiing within his comfort zone and scoring points a bucketful at a time. He won the downhill globe last season and was third in SG providing no indication of chink in his armor.
    Miller is second in the standings, 65 points back. A couple of wins, even if Cuche podiums, would go a long way toward overtaking the Swiss, but Miller has not been particularly successful in Norway even in his best years.
“Yeah, I would think this course would really suit Bode,” says his Team America coach John McBride, “but the history says otherwise.”
    McBride reports it is warm in Kvitfjell. Snow fell on the upper reaches of the course Tuesday night, but it rained at the bottom. “From the Russi Jump down it’s pretty soft. We’re hoping it gets cold enough overnight to firm it up.”
    That may be hope against hope, as the forecast says it is not going to get appreciably colder.
    In terms of the downhill title, the concern at Kvitfjell might better be Michael Walchhofer, the man behind Miller in the DH standings. Walchhofer is a wily veteran with two downhill globes, indicative of a World Cup title, on his mantle at home. It has not been a stellar season for him, as he has struggled with sickness and soreness, but he stayed in Europe rather than go through the travel to Whistler last week, and the rest was definitely what he needed.
     Fourth in the current standings is Sullivan. Although the course is more technical than Chamonix, it does feature some gliding, and that is Sullivan’s forte.
    Back-to-back wins, something that happened in both ’99 and 2000, by any of these guys and the standings take on a whole new look.
    Having already won at Bormio — the site of the final downhill — this season, Miller should be looking to not lose ground at Kvitfjell. He does have the overall title to be thinking about as well, and this weekend is the last in which he has a theoretical advantage over his foe for that globe, Benjamin Raich. Raich does have two fourth-place finishes in super G at Kvitfjell, so that advantage might be in theory only.
    At 35, Hermann Maier’s career is winding down. The leading active skier on the all-time wins (53) list and already the all-time leader in super G wins has won three of his 23 super G’s at Kvitfjell. It represents, perhaps, his best chance to add one more win to the grand total this season. If the weather is good and the track in good shape, he could decide to make a charge at 54. The top six in the super G standings are separated by just 80 points Cuche leads here, too, but four of the remaining five are Austrians and there will be some powerful team incentives to knock the old Swiss off the top step. Should prove entertaining.

Women: Tech racing resumes in Germany
The women move into Zwiesel, Germany, for a slalom and GS. There’s not a lot of hope anyone could keep Italian Denise Karbon from the GS globe. If she stands up, she’s got it.
    There are some challengers in slalom, but the ball is in Marlies Schild’s court. Her lead is 75 points with the next three skiers, Nicole Hosp, Tanja Poutiainen and Veronika Zuzulova battling hard for their points. They are separated by just 44, so the 2 through 4 spots could be swapping around. The focus will be on the overall race.
    The home field may favor Maria Riesch in this as she also has some momentum, coming in with the Whistler super combined win bolstering her confidence. She feels like she owes the German fans a top result having crashed out of the Ofterschwang GS. She got back into the overall race, with Lindsey Vonn and Hosp, last week, but still needs to make up ground and cannot miss opportunities. She’ll be charging.
    Hosp is damn good at gauging what she needs to do and limiting her risk. She didn’t cinch her title last season until the final race of the year. She should have the advantage over Vonn this weekend as she has — historically — a nine to none win ratio in slalom and GS. She’s nine to one over Riesch in the same statistic and six to none since 2004. In that combined last week, though, Hosp beat Vonn in th
e super G leg and Vonn beat Hosp in the slalom leg. It seems odd, but that’s the way it is at the top of the world’s elite pecking order. And Riesch, remember, won that race.
    There should be some fireworks in Germany, too.