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Bode Miller flew a bit
too far off Sochi’s
jumps.
The World Cup men were impressed, and that
says a great deal. Guys who make a living on the
biggest tracks of the world’s best ski resorts are not
easily impressed by a ski area.
“Freeskiing potential here is off the charts,” said
Travis Ganong while snapping photos as fast as
he could through the gondola windows (travis-ga-
nong.com).
Bode Miller said: “The downhill itself, if it’s not the
best then it’s one of the best I have ever skied. It’s
perfect for a natural downhill; you almost don’t have
to put in gates.”
Presenters wore
traditional garb at the
ceremony for Beat Feuz.
Beat Feuz had the
measure of the Olympic
downhill course.
Downhill, Feb. 11
They did put gates in, of course, which drew the
only complaints heard about this monster-long,
four-jump, perfect natural downhill. Up top, where
there is a relatively narrow section, it was set like
a super G in an effort to keep the racers in control.
While the course opened up after that section and
flowed well, racers were either in the air or hard
on an edge driving through a turn the entire way
down.
“The venue is impressive, that’s for sure,” said
Marco Sullivan after the first training run. “It’s a
good downhill. It’s technical. Definitely a worker,
but they did a good job of putting it all together. You
work for everything.”
It is not a course for those with less than ideal con-
ditioning. A number of competitors lost their break-
fast in the finish-area snow. This is a tough down-
hill, but as Bode would say, “If it’s not tough, then
what’s the point?”
The training runs didn’t reveal a whole lot. Those
with better super G skills seemed to prevail (Hannes
Reichelt was fast in the first two training runs [one a
partial] and Georg Streitberger in the third), but so
many skiers missed gates high on the course no
one really knew what to expect come race day.
The only given was that this perfect natural down-
hill would be a showcase event for the next Games
and those who performed well in this race would
have a step up on making their respective Olympic
teams.
Beat Feuz said he “hoped” he’d be around in two
years, that the Swiss team was too strong for him
to be assured a start in the Sochi Games. But he
won the race, his third of the season and fourth
since last March. He might have doubts, but few
others do.
Feuz has now registered downhill wins at Wengen
and Sochi and has been second at Lake Louise
and Beaver Creek this season. This one seemed
more special than his others. It came on his 25th
birthday.
The Swiss have been dominant in men’s downhill
this season: Six wins in nine races and a podium
in every race, save the second at Chamonix where
the Canadians went 1- 3-5. And it was the Canadi-
ans who gave chase at Sochi as well, though not
from the seasoned competitors.
Benjamin Thomsen collected his first World Cup
podium in second, stunning himself as well as the
Cup’s elite.
The 5-foot, 7-inch, 175-pound skier had been ear-
marked for a shot at the World Cup, which he got
when injury cut down some of Canada’s best a year
ago. Thomsen got a few points in the Lake Louise
super G and just missed at Bormio, finishing 32nd.
He was running out of chances when he got a ca-
reer-best 23rd at Garmisch in downhill. Then, with
the prospect of a ticket home for NorAms, he got
caught up in a Canadian surge at Chamonix, fin-
ishing 11th and then fifth in back-to-back downhills,
