By USSA

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) barely missed another podium on Sunday in Lake Louise, but took his best-ever super G finish in fourth place. The King of Lake Louise, Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, took the win, trailed by Matthias Mayer of Austria and Peter Fill of Italy.

The day felt similar to Saturday’s downhill race in more ways than one. Pleasant temperatures, a nearly cloudless sky, and Fill laying down a fast time within the top of the order contributed to a sense that the magic of Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” could be in the air. Then Ganong, whose previous best super G result was sixth in Kitzbuehel in 2014, cracked in right behind Fill at 0.06 seconds slower. When Svindal made a costly error once again but still managed to come down in the lead, almost a half-second ahead of Fill, the potential podium looked nearly identical to Saturday’s with the addition of Austrian Max Franz tying Ganong for the final spot. But, Svindal took the win again, his ninth podium and eighth victory at the Canadian speed venue.

Ganong was still stoked on the day, even though his was just 0.06 seconds off the podium. “It was good skiing today and solid, no big mistakes. I’m really happy,” said Ganong. “I think I lost like two-tenths in the first eight seconds, so that cost me the podium. I have bad shoulders and my thumb’s hurt so I can’t really push that hard. That’s kind of frustrating, but the skiing after that was good.”

The Truckee native, who had surgery on his thumb last week, leaves Lake Louise with a podium and a career-best super G result, indicating that he could be a serious threat in two disciplines on the tour this winter.

“I’ve always been really fast in training in super G, I just haven’t had a breakthrough like this yet in my super G career. So it’s really awesome to start chipping away at super G as well,” said Ganong. “In training I do it all the time with Svindal and these guys, we train with them and are right in there with them. It’s good to get one on race day.”

Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), finishing 21, and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) in 26 were the only other scoring athletes from the U.S. Ski Team. Weibrecht was lucky to emerge unscathed from the race after he launched off the final air on course and his tips drifted toward the sky.

“I thought I was not going to pull that together, actually, and I just did. So I’m happy about that. That’s my one takeaway from the day,” admitted Weibrecht.

Wrapping up the Americans, Tim Jitloff (Reno) was 40. Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley), Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) and Wiley Maple (Aspen, Colo.) were 46, 47 and 48, respectively. Drew Duffy (Warren, Vt.) had a wild ride, but finished his first World Cup in 55th.