River Radamus. Photo: GEPA pictures.

Only four of the World Cup’s top ten GS skiers chose to participate in the men’s parallel qualifier. Due to that reality, Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec’s, France’s Alexis Pinturault’s, and Germany’s Alexander Schmid’s advance to the Meribel finals were expected. But it was a surprise to see Switzerland’s Gino Caviezel miss qualifying by (+0.01)

Before the race, Stifel US Alpine Team member River Radamus had every reason to expect to qualify. After all, he is an athlete capable of a medal performance in the parallel finals. After his contributions to the gold medal performance in the mixed parallel earlier in the day, it was clear Radamus is an elite parallel GS athlete. However, after a big mistake in the middle of the course, it seemed qualifying was doubtful. Few could make the error he did and go on to qualify. Therefore his ability to qualify 8th in the more competitive red course is impressive. Radamus will be the only North American male racing in tomorrow’s competition.

Unfortunately, both Mixed Team Parallel bronze medal-winning Canadian brothers Jeffrey and Erik Read did not qualify. Two other US skiers who attempted to qualify, Luke Winters and Brian McLaughlin, will not receive an invitation to race in the Wednesday, February 15th parallel finals.

Results from the men’s parallel qualifier

Blue course results, fastest eight advance to the finals in Meribel

Red course results, fastest eight advance to the finals in Meribel