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Jansrud won both of the training runs — and by a lot. He
had guys worried. With two super G races (the first from
fogged-out Garmisch) surrounding a downhill, there
was plenty at stake. The super G title was very much
in doubt and there was room in the downhill standings
for some shifting at the top of the ladder among Didier
Cuche, Klaus Kroell and Beat Feuz, the last of whom
was also concerned about a knee still sore from Sochi
and a need to pile on enough points to give him room to
hold off technical charges for the overall crown.
Super G, March 2
The Kvitfjell course tests the subtleties of speed tech-
nique. Finding the fastest line is not an exact science,
and a cold wind had swept over the fjords overnight
and blown moisture out of the snow. It was bright and
sunny, and the snow had set up beautifully. It ran faster
than training and threw off whatever timing had been
found earlier in the week. Plus, of course, they had
been training downhill and the first race on the sched-
ule was a super G.
In the opening race, Jansrud, with years on the hill in
his knowledge bank, knew exactly where and how to
take advantage of the course, putting down a run that
appeared unbeatable.
Klaus Kroell, however, is pretty comfortable at Kvitfjell,
too. He milked the run, and, with a burst somehow pro-
duced down the last 100 meters of the track, edged
Jansrud by three-hundredths of a second. Four skiers
later, Feuz accomplished the exact same feat, creat-
ing a tie for first place and leaving Jansrud in third, 40
points poorer by three-hundredths of a second. In an
interesting — if useless — quirk, it was the fifth World
Cup win and second Cup super G men for both men,
and both of them had, in previous seasons, scored their
first downhill victories at Kvitfjell.
Kroell, a subject of considerable media attention
throughout this season in ski-mad Austria, downplayed
his spectacular run. “I was four-hundredths from being
fourth,” he said. And really, he pointed out, he was more
concerned about doing well in the downhill.
Feuz, with bone splinters floating around in his knee,
was astounded with his own performance but similarly
glad to be away from the intense scrutiny. The snow
was, he said, “much better” than back home in Crans-
Montana. “Here I felt much more comfortable when I
pushed hard on my skis in the turns,” said Feuz. “I know
and like this course a lot. It’s really nice to be here. The
landscape is beautiful and it’s very quiet, too.”
Jansrud was pleased with his racing. He had never
been so close to a World Cup victory and he knew he
could do better. “There were a couple of small things in
the middle part I could have done better,” he said. “I’m
happy, but not so happy about three-hundredths.”
Downhill, March 3
The downhill held dominion on day two. Kroell, and
most everyone else, had been watching Jansrud after
his huge margin in the first training run. In the downhill
Jansrud wore bib 1 and proved to be well worth watching. He found speed the entire length of the course
that he said he knew like the back of his hand. He
