Ryan Cochran-Siegle had hearts pounding after unexpectedly launching off a roll in the first training run on the brand new downhill track in Beijing. He came over the roll with a loaded ski, his weight shifted slightly back. In a phenomenal recovery, he pulled his feet back under him and landed on one ski, quickly getting his other foot back in contact with the snow.

This roll that RCS struggled on was just after a curve in the track. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who had the second-fastest training run, told NBC, “You have those corners where you really have to be having the direction on the way out to actually make the course, which is the most important thing.”

It is a short course, but nearly 20 men were unable to finish it Thursday without missing a gate.

Kilde also said, “It’s a new course, it’s always hard to kind of make a picture of how it’s going to be, but today was kind of as expected. Challenging high speeds on and off jumps, terrain a lot of things happening so you have to keep your mind in the right place. It was a fun first run and we’ll see how it develops.” 

The men will attempt the track again tomorrow, Feb. 4, for their second downhill training run of the Olympics.