Fisher wins twice against stacked downhill field

Fisher training at the Copper Speed Center (credit: Claire Brown)

The Copper Mountain Speed Center, which has played host to the U.S. Ski Team and a select group of internationals since its opening on Nov. 1, held the first FIS downhill races of the 2013/14 season in North America today (Nov. 9) with a stacked World Cup-caliber field. The U.S. Ski Team’s Erik Fisher won both the morning and afternoon races under clear skies with little wind after clocking a time just over a minute and a half down the speed track.

In the morning race, Austria’s Matthias Mayer was second while his teammate Georg Streitberger and American Marco Sullivan tied for third. The next North American to place after the string of Austrians succeeding Sullivan was Travis Ganong in seventh. Manny Osborne-Paradis was the top Canadian in ninth, and his younger teammate Morgan Pridy followed closely on his heels in tenth.

In the afternoon, Utah native Steven Nyman turned up the jets and claimed second while Austria’s Georg Streitberger showed consistency by once again placing third. American Tommy Biesemeyer cruised into seventh from bib 27, knocking his teammate Sullivan back to ninth. Just two hundredths pushed Osborne-Paradis into 10th, one spot back from his result in the earlier race.

Andrew Weibrecht, who won the sole training run preceding the races, could not capitalize on his speed under the gun and placed 11th and 22nd. World Cup podium regular Klaus Kroell of Austria, who underwent a second arm surgery early last month, was sixth in the morning and 12th in the afternoon. The fastest junior in both races was Canadian development team member Chris Steinke, who had two top-30 results in 21st and 28th.

Top 30 U.S. Ski Team FIS Series men’s DH #1

Top 30 U.S. Ski Team FIS Series men’s DH #2