Andrej Jerman
Back in the saddle, Steve Nyman earned the
top American placing in Bormio: 16th.
ings; he has won the downhill title in two of the past three years.
But frankly, the best in the world didn’t look that good. The Stelvio was a bit
rough and visibility wasn’t perfect. Neither should be a surprise, but mistakes
seemed to be magnified by both the conditions and the course, which offers
plenty of tests along its length.
“The course was not as icy as before but it was rough,” said Jerman. “There
were a lot of ruts and it was really tough.” This, he said, made it more challenging than usual — at least physically. Mentally, Jerman said that he was up
to the challenge and that if he can win at Bormio, he can win anywhere.
The top North American was Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis, the winner at Val Gardena 10 days earlier. Robbie Dixon, bruised and sore from a
Didier Defago exhales
after a run that would
earn him second place.
digger at Alta Badia, got 12th and was reasonably pleased to carry any momentum at all into “a very challenging course.”
With Bode Miller sitting out to rest his ankle, work on his fitness without the
added constraints of a racing schedule and spend some time with his daughter, skipped the race. Steven Nyman got the top U.S. placing, in 16th. It was
his career-best result at Bormio and his best of the season after a double knee
scope this summer.
“I had a couple of mistakes but I just kept things running,” Nyman said. In a
battle for a spot on the four-man Olympic team, Nyman said the result should
prove to be a confidence builder. Marco Sullivan struggled down the course
and into 28th place, giving him his fifth scoring-finish for the season.
