Steven Nyman will kick out of the Val Gardena start – racing in his 14th Saslong downhill – trying to “turn back the clock” and once again find the speed and timing that propelled him to his three and only World Cup victories.
Nyman will be racing his beloved course at the Italian Dolomites Südtirol ski resort for the first time in three years, having missed last season sidelined with an Achilles tendon injury and because of a race cancellation due to heavy snowfall and rain in 2019.
Now 39, and here in Val Gardena this week accompanied by his wife and two young daughters, Nyman remains motivated, however, he is also puzzled about his struggles to find the speed of years past over two training runs and in Friday’s super-G, in which he finished 42nd.
Still, his affinity for the Northern Italian racing venue is as strong as ever.
“I love it, I love the snow, I love the people, I love where we stay, I love skiing the track – it’s one of the most fun tracks on tour, it’s a joy to ski, there’s a rich history here, obviously, and I’m stoked to tackle it once again, but I got to get faster,” Nyman said, with a hint of laughter and frustration, after his second training run on Thursday.
The possibility exists that Saturday’s race could be Nyman’s final journey down the Saslong track, revered for its breathtaking scenery, trio of Camel Humps launching racers into the air and the Ciaslat minefield of terrain approaching the finishing jump and final pitch. The Park City ski racer – who will turn 40 during February’s Beijing Games – says he intends to keep competing through the 2022 world championships in Courchevel-Meribel, next February, however he briefly questions his plan following a lackluster second training run, in which he was 6oth, nearly five seconds slower than Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
“I was pretty nervous yesterday and today I was pretty stoked, but I was last place in every split, so I have some stuff to figure out,” Nyman admits, sporting a fluorescent orange helmet and still looming as a large presence in the Val Gardena finish area.
Asked by Ski Racing Media if this could potentially be his final trip down the Saslong, Nyman is uncertain.
“It could be – I was crying in Beaver Creek that it could have been my last time, I don’t know,” he says. “I actually have my sights set to Courchevel, but obviously I have to ski much better.
“I was proud of my performance in Beaver Creek and hopefully I can get into that zone and be much faster than these training runs – we’ll see.”
Nyman’s teammate Bryce Bennett says never count out the three-time champion’s chances, when it comes to finding the speed on the Saslong.
“You can never doubt Steve – he’s building back into it and it’s not that easy, but anything is possible,” says Bennett, who quickly admits that he does not recall Nyman’s first victory here, then aged 14. “I think he just needs one good run and it will change his whole season – he can do it.”
Nyman’s ‘hat trick’ of triumphs in Val Gardena
Nyman reminisced about his three, vastly different victories, that unfolded here in the shadow of the awe-inspiring Sassolungo Mountain, which towers majestically, at 10,764 feet, above the Saslong downhill track. The Utah racer won downhills here in 2006, 2012 and 2014.
His first triumph coming in 2006 was certainly the most dramatic and also least expected, as Nyman edged Swiss Didier Cuche by two-hundredths of a second.
“2006 was an awesome year – 2005 was my first year here, I crashed, but I saw it and I knew what I needed to do – and I was young, fearless and sending it,” the veteran U.S. downhiller recalled. “I crashed in the training run – I couldn’t even walk that well, but I ended up winning the race.
“Bode won the super-G and I won the downhill.
“I started 12, which was my lucky number and the stars aligned – I was stoked at how I hit the lines and executed, and I was super proud of that race.”
Luck was on Nyman’s side in 2012 at a race in which he was 0.19 faster than Slovenian Rok Perko, both racers starting in the 30s, yet benefiting from peculiar weather.
“That year, I wasn’t skiing that well, I wasn’t confident, but I had decent training runs,” he said. “They were determined to run it despite unpredictable weather, moving the start down and doing everything they could.
“The weather was breaking and the last start time that they would actually run it would put me right near where the weather broke,” said Nyman, who wore bib number 39. “I was talking to Werner Heel and said ‘this could be very good for us’ and I ended up winning the whole thing.
“Sometimes it’s not fair and you get lucky, but you still have to take advantage of it and honestly, it probably saved my career,” Nyman admitted, noting numerous crashes and equipment issues that season.
Finally, he completed his Val Gardena hat trick in 2014, defeating runner-up Kjetil Jansrud, by 0.31 seconds.
“I was just in the zone, felt it, they hardly had any snow here, it was thin ice, really bumpy, that’s what I like and I just destroyed everybody, every training run and laid it down on race day,” Nyman recalls, the tone of his voice rising in excitement.
“On race day, I told myself even though I won the training run by 1.2 seconds, I can’t back down, I have to show these guys what’s up, I did and I only won by three-tenths ahead of Jansrud. The next guy was a second-and-a-half behind us.
“It’s probably my most proud performance,” Nyman said.
Back with the boys, and family
This week in Val Gardena, the grizzled veteran is joined by U.S. Ski Team teammates Travis Ganong, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, Bryce Bennett, Jared Goldberg, Sam Morse and Erik Arvidsson.
Morse and Arvidsson were just 10-years-old when Nyman won in 2006, and the others were all teenagers.
Life is obviously vastly different now for the father of two daughters and well-traveled athlete, who has now started in 200 World Cup races – his first was a slalom in Flachau, Austria, in March 2002 – and has represented the United States at three Olympic Games.
“I absolutely love the fact that they are around – my oldest Nell (age five), she talks to me about it (racing) and asks me questions,” Nyman says. “The other day, we were going up the lift and she was like ‘let’s go ski race, let’s go ski race’ and I was like ‘girl, you gotta learn how to turn first.’”
“She’s excited and really into it, and hopefully she can watch her Dad have some good performances.”
Nyman searches from deep within, relying upon his experience, knowhow and passion for a piste and a place that he has built a career around, yet, now with subtle changes incorporated, including a revamped start to potentially uncork one more run to remember, with his daughters present, this Saturday.
“You have to live in the now, and really ski the course this year and not what it was in the past,” Nyman says. “Obviously I know a lot here and understand a lot, but I need to have an open mind, be apt to change and try new things.”
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