Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the first men’s World Cup downhill of the season at Lake Louise on Saturday.
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Svindal’s winning time was one minute 29.30 seconds despite losing his balance and getting knocked onto one ski in a turn partway down the course.
Italy’s Peter Fill, who finished just a hundredth of a second back of Svindal in the downhill, was third in 1:29.75. Matthias Mayer of Austria was third in 1:29.65.
The women arrive in Lake Louise for a pair of downhills Friday and Saturday followed by a Sunday super-G.
Fellow Norwegian star Kjetil Jansrud, the overall World Cup champion in super-G and downhill last season, was ninth in the opener.
“I’m always far behind here in Lake Louise – it’s a flatter hill and I struggle with it, because I’m a little smaller”, said Ganong, who recovered from a training crash to take part. Then Ganong, whose previous best super G result was sixth in Kitzbuehel in 2014, cracked in right behind Fill at 0.06 seconds slower. “Aksel winning, I know we’re good enough and I will be back in the fight tomorrow”. “I wasn’t as solid as I’d hoped to be”. Then the next key section is the Coaches’ Corner which I actually messed up, kind of like the downhill.
Guay, from Mont-Tremblant, was three-quarters of a second behind Jansrud.
Manny Osborne-Paradis of Invermere, B.C., placed 28th on Sunday. Admitting that his gliding is not as good as previous year, he will look to make adjustments and move on to Beaver Creek, where he will hopefully improve upon his seventh-place finish on the day.
Calgary’s Jan Hudec didn’t participate in any training runs and withdrew from downhill in with knee issues. Jeffrey Frisch, 56. Broderick Thompson. “I might push forward or I might push back”.
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“After being away from the World Cup for a year and a half, this is a good place for me to start”.
