bined to finish out his streak of 10 competition or official training runs in
11 days.
“It was an absolute blast to be able to ski speed again,” said Brandenburg.
“Coming back from injury, these are big races for me, for my confidence. I
just keep driving for the goal of getting back on the World Cup circuit. I’m
excited that the speed is clicking so I can race some more super combined,
I feel like that is going to be a pretty solid event for me.”
Canadian Dustin Cook grabbed a win in the super G portion of the combined, with Ganong in second and Canadian Travis Dawson in third. Cook
also claimed second place in the overall combined.
By the time the Panorama races were completed, six American men had
teamed up to score 10 of 18 podium spots. “It was really cool to see all
the younger guys stepping up,” said Brandenburg. “We had a different guy
every day racing fast.”
Junior Julia Ford muscles her way toward a fifth-place finish in the Lake Louise super G.
Panorama Women’s Races
The Canadian women outperformed the rest of the field in slalom in Pan-
orama Dec. 13 and 14, securing five of six podium spots on their home turf.
No one woman was on two slalom podiums as Brittany Phelan and Elli
Terwiel claimed the victories. Eve Rothier and Erin Mielzynski finished
2-3 in the first race and Kate Ryley finished third in the second. Sweden’s
Malin Hemmingsson, in second place in the second race, was the only
non-Canadian to crack the Panorama slalom podiums.
The GS races saw a little more color for the NorAms as Norway’s Anne
Cecilie Brusletto won both giant slaloms Dec. 15 and 16. Hemmingsson
and Simmerling grabbed the runner-up spots while Americans Ross and
Vanessa Berther split the third-place honors. Berther, 17, was the national
junior giant slalom champion last season, but this was her first NorAm
podium.
Ross finished the trip how she started, atop both the super G and super
combined podiums Dec 18. Julia Ford was second in both races, while fel-
low Americans Katie Hitchcock (third in the super combined) and Katie
Hartman (third in the super G) rounded out the podiums.
“I was not surprised but really happy to see Laurenne looking healthy
and feeling so good,” said USSA National Competition Director Walt Ev-
ans of Ross, who has been plagued by injury. “This is where she belongs.”
“This has been our best start on the NorAm circuit ever,” said Evans of
the U.S. team’s 33 of 55 podiums across the Canadian leg. “I think we are
in a good place with both the men and the women.”
The NorAm tour picks back up Jan. 2 and 3 in Val St. Come, Canada,
with two women’s slalom races before heading to Sunday River, Maine,
Jan. 4 to 7 for men’s slalom and giant slalom races.
Christopher Beckmann skis in the Lake Louise
downhill; he would finish third.
At 17, Vanessa Berther scores a NorAm third-place
finish in the giant slalom at Lake Louise.
Canada’s Erika Ghent wraps up a seventh-place
finish in the Lake Louise downhill.
