U.S. men miss podium in downhill

By USSA

VAL D’ISERE, France – Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) led the American’s in the first downhill of the season in 15th Saturday at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup.

Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud won for the second-straight day after taking Friday’s super G victory. Peter Fill of Italy was second. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who was second in Friday’s super G, finished third.

An early November storm dropped upwards of 10 feet of snow on the top of the course in Val d’Isere. However, rain fell on the lower slopes during the same storm. Organizers were able to make enough snow on the lower slopes to host the event, but the conditions proved challenging for the racers, with extremely aggressive snow.

 “The snow is super aggressive,” Nyman said. “You’re going from natural snow (up top), to really grippy (snow), to dense wet stuff and it’s hard to adapt.”

“It was just crazy,” added Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.), who finished 37th. “The snow was so much more aggressive than it has been over the past days. My skis were too sharp and I’m just happy to be down. I had a couple close calls.”

Other American finishers included Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) in 22nd, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) in 48th and Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) in 56th.