Early in the week, American River Radamus won gold in the World Juniors super-G, helped lead his team to silver in the team event, and finished just off the podium in fourth in the alpine combined. With only two races left in the men’s series, the giant slalom and the slalom, Radamus raked in another solid finish and claimed the title of World Juniors Giant Slalom Champion. After the first run, Radamus had a hold on gold by one-hundredth of a second. An explosive second run secured the lead and the win by o.89 seconds over Italian Tobias Kastlunger in second. Belgium’s Sam Maes finished third, 0.93 seconds behind Radamus.
“The GS title is the one that I’ve really been craving,” said Radamus. “I’ve been working on GS most of the season and I really wanted to have a strong showing here. This is a really tough field in the GS, there’s a lot of really good, tough, young guys now, so I knew it was gonna be a fight and I had to send it as hard as I could.”
Six Americans landed in the top 30 in during the men’s giant slalom, more than any other nation competing at in the event. The charge was led by Radamus in first, followed by Kyle Negomir (13), Jett Seymour (17), Jimmy Krupka (25), Cooper Cornelius (26), and Bridger Gile (27).
“I was hyped up by my teammates today. You know, we had six in the top 30, we had way more than any other nation so to have that sort of strong showing, it was amazing,” said Radamus. “I was just feeding off of their energy and they were feeding off of me and you know we were just trying to shoot for top tens and get that podium. We’ve been shut out from the [Marc] Hodler Cup for the last two years that I’ve been racing so it was a really big goal of mine to try and get us on the podium this year and we had another strong showing today, we’re sitting in third, looking good, trying to close it out in the last couple of races.”
The Frenchmen also had a strong performance in the giant slalom, squeezing three racers into the top 15. Led by Leo Anguenot in fifth, Florian Loriot grabbed a sixth-place finish, and Jeremie Lagier finished just outside of the top ten in 11th.
Currently, Norway leads the total medal count at World Juniors with six medals, followed by Switzerland with five medals, and the United States with three medals, all of which Radamus has contributed to. Radamus came close to punching into the top three in the Alpine combined early in the series but had to settle for fourth. Keely Cashman has been on the tails of a podium on the women’s side of the competition in the super-G and Alpine combined but finished in fifth and fourth, respectively. Switzerland and the United States are the only nations that have earned multiple gold medals.
The men will compete in the slalom for their last chance at a World Championship medal on Tuesday, February 26th. The women’s downhill closes out the ladies’ series on Wednesday, February 27th.
Top 10 Men’s Giant Slalom
- River Radamus (USA): 1:57.96
- Tobias Kastlunger (ITA): +0.84
- Sam Maes (BEL): +0.93
- Halvor Hilde Gunleiksrud (NOR): +1.18
- Leo Anguento (FRA): +1.50
- Florian (FRA): +1.74
- Turo Torvinen (FIN): +1.77
- Fadri Janutin (SUI): +1.94
- Jonas Stockinger (GER): +1.98
- Samuel Moling (ITA): +2.00
For full FIS results, please click here.
About the Author: Mackenzie Moran
