Ganong barely misses downhill podium

By USSA

KVITFJELL, Norway — Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley), who 24 hours earlier stamped the first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup top three of his career, finished fourth Saturday, a mere 0.05 from a second downhill podium in Kvitfjell. Canadian Erik Guay hit 88 mph on the final speed trap to secure the win, the fifth of his career, with a time of 1:22.17.

Bode Miller (Franconia, N.H.) also landed in the top 10 with eighth in the final men’s downhill prior to the March 10-16 World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Saturday’s downhill was also shortened due to snow conditions, but run from the super G start, 15 seconds higher than the reserve start used Friday.

Only the top 25 athletes in each discipline qualify to start that discipline at World Cup Finals. Athletes with 500 World Cup points can also start in any race and the Junior World Champion can start the discipline they won.

Only Miller (seventh) and Ganong (ninth) have qualified in downhill for the U.S. Ski Team.

Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) and Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) finished 24th and 25th in the race, but are outside the World Cup top 25 for downhill.

Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal tied for sixth in the race, but mathematically secured the season-long downhill title with a 525-360 lead over injured racer Hannes Reichelt of Austria and Guay, who now has 357 points.

Svindal also jumped into the World Cup overall lead with a 982-955 margin over two-time defending champion Marcel Hirscher of Austria. Hirscher is seeking to become the first three-peat overall champion since American Phil Mahre did it from 1981-83.