Are: Svindal wins World Championships downhill

Despite falling short of a medal in either the super G or the super combined, Aksel Lund Svindal knew he had what it took to conquer the Olympia downhill course in Are.
    The big Norwegian not only conquered the course, he made history in the process, becoming the first racer from Norway to win a downhill gold medal at the World Championships, topping Canada's Jan Hudec and the ageless Patrik Jaerbyn of Sweden.
    Svindal clocked a time of 1 minute, 44.68 seconds, continually building speed throughout a course made treacherous by often-poor visibility. Hudec, starting No. 2 in the field, held the lead for more than 20 racers and finished second in 1:45.40, while the 37-year-old Jaerbyn became the oldest skier ever to medal in a World Championships and Sweden's first-ever top-three finisher in downhill at worlds. Jaerbyn's teammate, Anja Paerson, later made it two for Sweden by winning the women's downhill and grabbing her third gold at this event.
    "I think to win the gold medal at the World Championships you have to basically beat the rest of the guys in the world, no matter if that’s downhill, super G or GS. That’s a big achievement," said Svindal, who won the downhill at World Cup Finals last season on the same Are course.
  

ARE, Sweden — Despite falling short of a medal in either the super G or the super combined, Aksel Lund Svindal knew he had what it took to conquer the Olympia downhill course in Are.
    The big Norwegian not only conquered the course, he made history in the process, becoming the first racer from Norway to win a downhill gold medal at the World Championships, topping Canada's Jan Hudec and the ageless Patrik Jaerbyn of Sweden.
    Svindal clocked a time of 1 minute, 44.68 seconds, continually building speed throughout a course made treacherous by often-poor visibility. Hudec, in his first full season on the World Cup and starting No. 2 in the field, held the lead for more than 20 racers and finished second in 1:45.40, while the 37-year-old Jaerbyn became the oldest skier ever to medal in a World Championships and Sweden's first-ever top-three finisher in downhill at worlds. Jaerbyn's teammate, Anja Paerson, later made it two for Sweden by winning the women's downhill and grabbing her third gold at this event.
    "I think to win the gold medal at the World Championships you have to basically beat the rest of the guys in the world, no matter if that’s downhill, super G or GS. That’s a big achievement," said Svindal, who won the downhill at World Cup Finals last season on the same Are course.
    "The fact that no other Norwegian has won the downhill before, I think that’s just bad luck actually. Because look at how many medals they’ve gotten."
    No American or Austrian racers broke into the top five. Bode Miller, the defending downhill world champion, finished seventh, and Mario Scheiber led the Austrians in eighth.
    Miller, skiing six spots after Svindal took the lead, was neck-and-neck with the smooth-skiing Norwegian on the top, taking a 0.01 second lead into the technical middle section, which was intermittently bathed in fog and flat light throughout the race. Miller said the light was too flat in the middle section to ski aggressively and he began losing time.
    At one point Miller got way in the back seat and couldn't maintain a clean line. Exiting the middle he was 0.64 back of Svindal and he ended the race more than a second behind.
    "Today if you didn’t have a pretty clear course in the middle section, you can’t ski aggressively down that pitch. Literally, when I went you couldn’t see," Miller said. "It was unbelievable how flat the light was.
    "I skied well on the parts where I could ski hard. I'm not too disappointed because it was really all I could do. I think if anybody ran with the conditions I had, they would have had a hard time beating me."
    Steven Nyman was the next-best U.S. finisher in 21st, Marco Sullivan was 28th, Scott Macartney 30th and T.J. Lanning 40th.
    "I was hoping I could get an early present because my birthday is [Monday]," Nyman said. "I got an early Christmas present at Gardena. The birthday present didn’t work out."
    Nyman made a heroic recovery midway through the course, regaining his balance after losing his right edge and falling on his left hip approaching a hard right turn.   
    "I don’t know [how it happened]. Somehow I just do it," Nyman said of the recovery. "My back has been messed up the past few days. I don’t know if that really helped it. I’m just happy I didn’t t-bone into the fence. I’m fine.
    "I was just charging for it … bummer.
    Nyman added that it was cool to see Svindal destroy everyone in the field Sunday.   
    "We train together and he's my same age. So it was really great to see him do so well."

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's downhill, Are, Sweden, Feb. 11, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Hudec, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Jaerbyn, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Hoffmann, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
6 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
7 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
8 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

Men's downhill, Are, Sweden, Feb. 11, 2007. … Race was delayed one day due to fog. … It is the fifth race of the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. … The 59th downhill at a World Championship.
    It is the second World Championship medal for Aksel Lund Svindal, the first coming in combined at Bormio in 2005. … It is the first medal for Norway at this meet, the 43rd historically. … He is the first Norwegian male to win a World Championship DH, though four have earned silver medals: Atle Skaardal 1993, Lasse Kjus (1997 & 1999) and Kjetil Aamodt 2003 with a bronze in 1999. … Although he leads the World Cup standings, it is the first win for Svindal since Dec. 21 (GS Hinterstoder). … The only Cup DH he has ever won was also at Are March 15, 2006. … He was 21st in the Olympic DH last season.
    The first podium for Jan Hudec in any world-level competition. … He had been seventh in two previous World Championship events, the 2003 and 2007 SG's. … His best World Cup result is eighth in DH at Lake Louise Nov. 27, 2004. … His best World Cup results this season had been 15th in SG at Val Gardena. … It is the 15th Canadian World Championship medal of any color, and the first won by a make at a World Championship.  …. "Jungle" Jim Hunter won the combined bronze in 1972 based on Olympic competition.
    It is the second World Championship medal for Patrick Jaerbyn. … He won silver in SG at Sierra Nevada in
1996. … He has never won a World Cup race and had placed on just two podiums, both in super G and one earlier this season at Lake Louise. … His best Cup result in DH is sixth at Val Gardena Dec. 18, 2004.
    Eric Guay was two-hundredths of a second outside of the medals. … His previous best result at World Championships (discounting the team event) is sixth, accomplished three times, in SG and DH in 2003 and in the SG here. … He has not won a World Cup race but has been second four times, twice in DH, and once in DH this season (Val d'Isere Jan. 20). … It is the third World Championship DH result for Bode Miller. … He was 16th in 2003 and won gold in 2005. … He has podiumed in nine World Cup DHs for his career, winning four. … Miller has been in the top 10 in 10 World Championship events (including team) a USA team best. … It is a career best result at World Championships for Manuel Osborne-Paradis. … He was also 19th in DH and 17th in CMB at Bormio 2005. … He was 13th in DH at 2006 Olympics. … He has two DH podiums this season on World Cup, second at Lake Louise and third at Val d'Isere. … Steven Nyman has been in all three events held at Are for men to date, doing better in both combined (9th) and SG (12th). … He won the Cup DH at Val Gardena Dec. 16 this season and was third at Beaver Creek. ..It is the third World Championship result for Marco Sullivan but the first from 2007. … He was 17th in SG and 24th in DH in 2003. … His best of the season is fourth at Val Gardena, sixth and 10th at Beaver Creek and 12th and 13th at Bormio, all in DH and all in December. … It is the third World Championship result for Scott Macartney, the others 28th in SG in 2005 and 31st in SG here. … His best World Cup result is second in SG at Garmisch Jan. 29. 2006. … John Kucera has recorded three results at these World Championships, none as good as the three recorded at Bormio 2005 in the same three events. … It is the third result of these championships for TJ Lanning. … the best of them 20th in combined.
    Winning margin is .72. … Top four are within the same second. … Top 17 within two seconds.

Medal count:
AUT 4 (2s, 2b)
SWE 3 (2g, 1b)
SUI 3 (1g, 2b)
USA 2 s
ITA 1 g
NOR 1 g

Are World Championships men's downhill results

Did not start 1st run:
ZAGORSKI Wojciech (POL), TREJBAL Filip (CZE)

Did not finish 1st run:
SATS Konstantin (RUS), ANGUITA Cristian (CHI), BRIDGWATER Mark (NZE), PERKO Rok (SLO), BUECHEL Marco (LIE), KEPPLER Stephan (GER)