Dominik Paris wins 1st World Cup downhill since injury

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany – Dominik Paris won his first race since blowing out his knee a year ago, triumphing Friday in the last men’s World Cup downhill before the word championships.

The Italian skier trailed Beat Feuz by one-tenth of a second midway through his run but excelled on the bottom part of the Kandahar course to beat his Swiss rival by 0.37 seconds.

Feuz had won the previous two downhills and leads the discipline standings.

Matthias Mayer was 0.40 behind in third, with Austrian teammate Max Franz two-hundredths further back in fourth.

Paris was the 2013 silver medalist in downhill at the worlds and is the defending super-G champion.

He tore ligaments and fractured a bone in his right knee in a crash during downhill training for the Kitzbühel race in January 2020.

His previous best result this season came when he returned to Kitzbühel two weeks ago and finished third.

“Every day was a little bit better. I had more confidence on my skis,” Paris said about his return. “My skiing was every day a little bit better. But I know it takes a lot to be back on the podium and back to doing the victory.”

Friday’s result marked Paris’ 19th career win, and 15th in downhill. Only three racers won more downhills in the 54-history of the World Cup: Franz Klammer (25), Peter Müller (19) and Stephan Eberharter (18).

Travis Ganong was seventh to lead three Americans into the points.

“It’s kinda crazy that I still have a top-10 result after a huge mistake like that today,” said Ganong, “but I really like this hill, and I really know this hill well. I’ve had a lot of success here…I hit that huge hole and scorpioned for a second, and thought I was going down, but somehow when I looked up I was still on line and I was able to get back in my tuck and keep going.”

Jared Goldberg got caught up in the same hole teammate Ganong did, but carried good speed down the dark Kandahar track, ending up with his seventh top-30 World Cup result this season. Bryce Bennett ended up 21st. 

Middlebury College’s Erik Arvidsson, who recently won his first Europa Cup downhill, narrowly missed his first World Cup points, landing in 34th — less than three-tenths of a second out of 30th. Sam Morse—who was third in the same Europa Cup downhill when Arvidsson won — also started for the Americans and was 40th. 

The race was interrupted several times after crashes, most notably after an accident involving Josef Ferstl.

The German avoided serious injury in a frightening crash after he lost control over his right ski while approaching a jump. Going more than 100 kph (62 mph), Ferstl was airborne with his skis up in the air and landed sideways on the slope before sliding into the safety nets.

Ferstl was briefly attended by medics but got up and skied down to the finish area.

A super-G was initially scheduled for Friday, followed by the downhill the next day, but organizers swapped the program to avoid possible damage to the course before the downhill.

Saturday’s super-G is the final event before the worlds in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, open on Monday.

World Cup – Men’s Downhill – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Feb. 5, 2021