Marte Monsen and Trica Mangan: Photo Lisa Mutz-Nelson
April 1, 2023 – Taos, NM – Tricia Mangan, 2x Olympian and U.S. World Cup Athlete and Jeffrey Read, FIS World Championships bronze medalist for Alpine Canada, skied away with the victories at Saturday’s 2023 World Pro Ski Tour Taos World Championships giant slalom races.
Friday’s Taos Ski Valley’s Kachina Basin weather challenges, which included high winds and fresh snow, gave way to a picture-perfect Saturday of New Mexico blue skies and warm sun. A talented group of athletes, including Olympians, World Champions, World Cup athletes, and NCAA racers, had traveled to New Mexico to test their parallel racing skills and pursue cash prizes. Saturday’s race was the season finale giant slalom.
WOMEN
The women’s field started with a round of 16 that saw the early elimination of the 2022 Tour Champion Norway’s Tuva Norbye. Tricia Mangan began her push to the finals after a solid but wild day of skiing in Friday’s super slalom, where she finished fourth. No other surprises occurred in the first round.
In the round of eight, the competition heated up and racing was neck and neck. Paula Moltzan, Friday’s super slalom World Champion, skied aggressively and earned an advantage of (-0.247) in the first run against Emma Hammergard of Sweden. During the second run, Hammergard matched Moltzan at the top of the course, then Moltzan got into the soft snow and could not recover, allowing Hammergard to advance. Tricia Mangan, skiing aggressively but more in control than her wild runs on Friday, easily put away Norway’s Mina Holtmann. At the same time, both Canadian athletes in the women’s field, Candace Crawford and Tour leader Erin Mielzynski progressed into the semifinals.
Semifinals saw Hammergard up against Mangan. While the two matched one another through the warm softening course, Mangan pushed her risky skiing style right to the edge and came away with the victory, punching her ticket to the big final. The Canadians met in the semifinal round, with Mielzynski narrowly earning a (-0.01) advantage over Crawford in the first run. The bottom of the red course had been faster all day, and Mielzynski used this to her advantage during the second run, advancing her to the big final to meet Mangan for the World Championship GS title.
The small final between Hammergard and Crawford produced a clear victory for Crawford in the first run, giving her the maximum differential of (-0.70) seconds. Knowing she had to put everything on the line to overcome the deficit, Hammergard barged at the start of the second run and was held back by the 1400lb magnets, putting Crawford in third place and Hammergard in fourth.
Mangan and Mielzynski met in the finals, with the crowd cheering them on after an intense day of racing. Both ladies had raced into final rounds on Friday, but they hid the fatigue and pushed through to the last gate. Mangan earned the win and a $20,000 check, and Mielzynski finished in the runner-up position for the second day in a row. Still, her consistency paid off in the overall World Championships standings, earning her the 2023 Overall World Champion title and a $25,000 bonus.
1st: Mangan
2nd: Mielzynski
3rd: Crawford
4th: Hammergard
2023 overall WPST World Champions: Canadian Erin Mielzynski and Switzerland’s Reto Schmidiger
MEN
The men’s field started fast and furious, with new bracket seeding based on Friday’s GS results. Double Olympic gold medalist, Ted Ligety, was enthusiastic about the GS. Still, his time away from the gates showed and he was eliminated in the round of 32 by Norway’s Louis Fausa. Tour regular Miha Keurner was skiing well but found trouble after the second jump and crashed going into the next gate, giving Tucker Marshall, another familiar WPST face, an opportunity to advance. The other upset in the round of 32 was U.S.A.’s World Cup giant slalom skier and World Championship team member Brian McLaughlin – a late entry and a rookie – who outskied the better-seeded Norway’s, Joachim Lien.
Into the Round of 16, Reto Schmidiger continued his dominant performance from Friday’s win, quickly eliminating USA’a Florian Swebel. Erik Read of Canada defeated Norway’s Leif Haugen, while his brother Jeffrey Read won against Fausa. Austrian-Bolivian Simon Breitfuss-Kammerlander, skiing with a dislocated shoulder from Friday’s fall, took an epic crash during his second run against River Radamus and was done for the day. In the last pairing of the round, Filip Forejtek, who skied dominantly on Friday, let the fatigue show as he was eliminated by USA’s Patrick Kenney, a World Cup athlete on Global Racing.
The round of eight heated up with Schmidiger versus the 2022 WPST co-World Champion (shared with Linus Strasser), Erik Read; Schmidiger won the first heat by only (-0.089). In the second run, Read used the faster bottom of the red course to his advantage and advanced. His brother, Jeffrey Read, defeated Aspen’s Wiley Maple, who skied strongly on Friday but could not continue his success in the GS. Germany’s David Ketterer, dominant on the Tour after two wins in Bear Valley, was narrowly outskied by Taos-sponsored River Radamus, who had a huge cheering section at the base of the course. Additionally, U.S. Ski Team veteran and longtime Tour athlete Michael Ankeny made a great effort to defeat Kenney and advance to the Semifinals.
The semifinals saw the Read brothers matched against one another, and they showed the elite skiing in their genes as they matched one another down both runs. However, Jeffrey Read took the victory and advanced into the big final. Americans Radamus and Ankeny were tightly matched against one another in the semis with another set of closely contested runs. Still, Ankeny blew through a gate towards the bottom of the course and it was Radamus advancing.
In the small final, Ankeny showed his fatigue, skiing out in the first run and giving Erik Read the maximum time differential going into the last run. Ankeny could not overcome the deficit and the older Read earned the third-place spot. Radamus and Jeffrey kept things tighter, and after Erik worked the red course advantage on the first run, Radamus could not overcome his deficit. Therefore, Jeffrey Read skied to victory in the WPST World Championship GS, taking home $20,000.
A twist in overall points standings during the weekend brought Reto Schmidiger back to the podium for the 2023 overall Taos World Championships award and a $25,000 bonus.
1st: J. Read
2nd: Radamus
3rd: E. Read
4th: Ankeny
About the World Pro Ski Tour
The World Pro Ski Tour is a nationwide tour of events for men and women where professional skiers race side-by-side in a single elimination format. Prize money and an overall World Pro Ski Tour title attract Olympians and professional skiers worldwide. On-site spectators and TV viewers can watch all stops on the Tour in an exciting and easy-to-understand format. More information on the World Pro Ski Tour and all its partners can be found at http://worldproskitour.com.
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