“That,” said Manuel Osborne-Paradis, “was the longest downhill run of my life. What was it, 45minutes?”

Not quite. The Canadian’s run in the eventually canceled second training run at Beaver Creek, Colo., ahead of Friday’s annual Birds of Prey downhill, was officially 41minutes, 50 seconds and .70 hundredths.

Osborne-Paradis was delayed mid run, the second straight skier (bibs 19 and 20) to pull up because of their goggles freezing up. The other was World Cup leader Mario Scheiber. “There was ice on my glass and I never saw anything and it was a decision to cancel. I’ve had too many injuries,” the Austrian said.

One of the two fastest skiers of the day, Michael Walchhofer said at the point he ran in bib 17 that the training run – with speeds over 100kph – was “On the limit.” Were he to send word up to the start to his teammates, he said, his main advice would be “Ski safe.”

While Osborne-Paradis was allowed to re-start part way down the run with new goggles since he had trashed his lenses trying to wipe them clean while skiing, others did not get that advantage. The restart was an unusual circumstance at best, and organizers tried their best to wait out a temperature situation and damp air that caused skier after skier to struggle with visibility.

Eventually 43 racers were started from a field that included 79, representing to at least some extent two distinctly different races. Walchhofer tied for the fastest time with Italian Peter Fill. Hans Grugger, skiing after the 41 minute delay, finished third fastest, bumping Erik Guay of Canada down a notch. The U.S. had a lot to be pleased with, despite the shortened field and difficult conditions. Travis Ganong rolled into seventh with a clean run, Bode Miller finished 11th, Steven Nyman 12th and Andrew Weibrecht 13th, all save Weibrecht skiing in the second half of the race.

Photo of Osborne-Paradis by Gepa