Kilde again, Beaver Creek downhill

Beaver Creek. 03DEC.2022. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Photo: GEPA pictures

Once again, the Beaver Creek Talon Crew has worked to create a miracle. After a 24 hours snowstorm, their efforts have produced a fantastic race track. Although the overcast skies added to the challenge by creating difficult visibility, the race was successful. There is no doubt the wind on the top flat, the flyway, played a role, but the best rose to the top. 

There was a lot of exciting skiing through bib five, but then Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde skied and revealed that some are really good and some are fantastic. He arrived 0.79 seconds ahead of the first five, despite dealing with an illness all week in training. Notably, while sitting in the leader’s chair, Kilde knew the best overall skier in the world, Swiss athlete Marco Odermatt, was waiting at the start. 

“It’s been a tough week,” Kilde said after the race. “I caught the flu in Lake Louise after a very, very nice weekend. It really hit me hard. Then I got a couple of days to rest and take it easy. … I felt OK. Still feeling it a little bit in my system.”

Odermatt produced threatening splits during his entire trip down the Birds of Prey and excited the crowd to the finish. However, he crossed in second place, just 0.03 seconds behind Kilde. After three men’s speed World Cups this season, it is clear these two men are currently better than the rest of the field. 

Kilde reached speeds around 75 mph (121 kph) in picking up his eighth World Cup downhill victory. That tied him with Kjetil Jansrud for the third-most downhill wins in the World Cup discipline among Norwegian men. The Norwegian total only trails Aksel Lund Svindal (14) and Lasse Kjus (10).

“I found a really, really good set-up with my equipment and also with my skiing,” Kilde explained. “I believe in myself. I trust in myself. I have a good game plan. When I stand on the start, I don’t dwell on anything. I know that this plan is what I do and when I do that it’s going to be fast.”

Odermatt has been on the podium in all four World Cup races this season as he tries to defend his overall World Cup title. The 25-year-old finished third in the opening downhill of the season last weekend. He’s also won a giant slalom race and a super-G.

There are always young athletes emerging and fighting to join the best. So far this season, it looks like that athlete is Canada’s, James Crawford. After a challenging start in his home races in Lake Louise, Canada, Crawford arrived at the finish with the excellent skiing he had been teasing in the training runs. Crawford finished 3rd, 0.79 seconds behind Kilde, and on the podium. For the second time in his life, Crawford has found himself on the steps. 

Without a doubt, Austrian superstar Matthias Mayer skied as well as the best two for the majority of his run. However, he suffered a slow first split on the flyway and could not recover. Mayer finished 0.80 seconds behind Kilde.

Today’s fastest US athlete is Olympic Super-G medalist Ryan Cochran Siegle in 7th. RCS was as fast as Crawford on the flyway. And then he skied the third fastest effort to the pump house to join the podium hunt. However, RCS fell behind in the next split and never recovered. Any top-ten result is admirable, and he continues to show good progress toward becoming one of the sport’s best. 

“It’s been solid,” Cochran-Siegle said of his strides in the discipline. “A couple of little things here and there that pushed me off that top three. You have to ski with a lot of intensity and ski without abandon, in a sense. Today was a good step.”

Additionally, Bryce Bennett scored his first season points in 26th. This result qualifies him to ski the super-G tomorrow. However, after tomorrow he will be looking forward to the following speed events in Italy. There he is, the defending downhill champion. 

Travis Ganong finishes right behind Bennett in 27th. Travis is one of the most talented skiers in the world and will undoubtedly be looking for a better outcome in tomorrow’s race. When asked about how he felt about his performance today, he expressed that he would have made some tactical changes. “You always want to go back out and do it again once you know all the information about what’s going on on the hill,” Ganong said. In last season’s Beaver Creek super-G, he finished on the podium in third. 

Switzerland had three of the top ten finishers and Austria had two. Additionally Norway, Canada, Germany, France, and the United States each had one athlete in the top ten.

The Beaver Creek stop on the circuit comes to a close Sunday with a super-G race. Odermatt will be the favorite after holding off Kilde in the opening super-G last weekend.

Analysis of the top three and North Americans in the top 30 as well as the top 34 results

Top 34 Beaver Creek downhill results 12/3/22

The Associated Press and US Ski & Snowboard contributed to this report.