Are: Gruber paces men's DH training, but loses spot

ARE, Sweden — Christoph Gruber led three Austrian men in the top five in a frigid downhill training run Wednesday at the World Championships. A pair of Canadians, led by Erik Guay in second, also finished in the top 10. Despite his fastest time, Gruber was not picked for the Austrian downhill team.
    Bode Miller led U.S. racers in 28th, but the reigning world champion in downhill skied conservatively by his standards while gauging the layout of the course. Steven Nyman was the next best American in 30th. Marco Sullivan, back on his skis after sustaining an abdominal injury in Are over the weekend, was 48th, T.J. Lanning 51st, Ted Ligety 52nd and Scott Macartney 55th.
    The temperature at the top of the course at the 10 a.m. start time was minus-7 degrees F.

ARE, Sweden — Christoph Gruber led three Austrian men in the top five in a frigid downhill training run Wednesday at the World Championships. A pair of Canadians, led by Erik Guay in second, also finished in the top 10.
    Despite his fastest time, Gruber was not picked for the Austrian downhill team.
    Bode Miller led U.S. racers in 28th, but the reigning world champion in downhill skied conservatively by his standards while gauging the layout of the course. Steven Nyman was the next best American in 30th. Marco Sullivan, back on his skis after sustaining an abdominal injury in Are over the weekend, was 48th, T.J. Lanning 51st, Ted Ligety 52nd and Scott Macartney 55th.
    The temperature at the top of the course at the 10 a.m. start time was minus-7 degrees F. Many racers also complained of gusty winds on the course. The wind has forced race officials to scale back the height of some of the jumps on the course, limiting air time.
    “I like the jumps. This year I’ve done quite a bit better on the jumps and the air,” said Ligety, the reigning Olympic champion in the combined. “That’s always a really fun part of downhill, one of my favorite aspects of it. It’s kind of disappointing.
    “The course has definitely been tamed down a lot since last year at [World Cup] Finals. It was one of the gnarlier courses last year with all the huge air and various terrain, but this year it’s kind of been dumbed down, which is a little disappointing, but at the same time I guess it makes it a little more safe. But I’d like to catch some good air.”
    Ligety, training for Thursday’s super combined event, which will feature one run of downhill in the morning and an afternoon slalom run, said he’s improved his downhill to the point where he can be just a second-and-half out of the lead entering the slalom run. His hopes are high for a gold medal on Thursday.
    “Last year I couldn’t get within three seconds [of the leaders] in my downhill,” he said. “[I’ve] been super inconsistent in the slalom, but if I lay it down I think I have a real good chance.”
    The men have a second downhill training run scheduled on Friday, with the downhill set for Saturday.
    U.S. head coach Phil McNichol said, “The training run was OK for the first time down the full course but it was pretty uneventful. There were some challenges with the super cold snow, but that’s why you have a training run … and we’ll address those before tomorrow.
    “I thought Bode had some good sections through the middle, and Marco skied well, too. But, on the whole, the guys were getting a first look at the course after all this snow, so I wouldn’t try to read anything into the times.”
    The U.S. Ski Team is sporting new Spyder racing uniforms for worlds. Athletes traded in their basic blue for basic black outfits with the distinctive spider-web designs plus stars below the knees. Nyman smiled, “I like black. Black is back.

Maier in, Gruber out
    Hermann Maier was chosen over Gruber for the Austrian downhill squad at the World Championships based on his results this season and past performances on the course.
    Gruber was fastest in Wednesday's downhill training session but did not lead by a large enough margin, Austrian coaches said.
    The Austrians were using the first men's official downhill training session to make their final selections for the gold-medal competition.
    Gruber posted the fastest time and was .29 faster than Maier, who finished in fourth.
    Neither Maier nor Gruber have any downhill wins this season. But Austria head coach Toni Giger said team officials preferred Maier over Gruber because ''his results this season were clearly better than Christoph's.''
    Maier won a downhill in Are in 2001.
    ''He likes the hill, he's is fast in these conditions and he is one of our best medal collectors,'' Giger said.
    Gruber will get to race next week's giant slalom along with Maier.
    ''I must accept that the coaches preferred Hermann over me,'' said the 30-year-old Gruber, who placed fourth in the super G on Tuesday. ''I've had decisions in my favor in the past, too.''
    Gruber was selected to the downhill squad for the 2002 Winter Games over now-retired Hannes Trinkl the day before the Olympic race.
    ''It's a good thing the coaches made the decision today, three days before the race and not at the last minute,'' Gruber said. ''In the past, they would chose in a time trial the day before the race so we'd have a race just before the race. And in the end we'd be too tired to do well.''

— The Associated Press contributed to this report

Are World Championships men’s downhill training results
1. Christoph Gruber, Austria, 1 minute, 50.26 seconds.
2. Erik Guay, Canada, 1:50.28 .
3. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 1:50.38.
4. Hermann Maier, Austria, 1:50.55.
5. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 1:50.65.
6. Hans Olsson, Sweden, 1:50.73.
7. Francois Bourque, Canada, 1:50.74.
8. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 1:50.79.
9. Hans Grugger, Austria, 1:50.81.
10. Fritz Strobl, Austria, 1:50.82.