Lenzerheide: Austria leads, U.S. 6th in team event

By Published On: March 16th, 2007Comments Off on Lenzerheide: Austria leads, U.S. 6th in team event

Looking to rebound from a woeful nations team event at the Are World Championships, the U.S. Ski Team struggled in the speed portion of the World Cup Finals team event Friday.
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — Looking to rebound from a woeful nations team event at the Are World Championships, the U.S. Ski Team struggled in the speed portion of the World Cup Finals team event Friday.
    With four super G legs completed and four slalom legs to ski in the afternoon, the U.S. team is sixth out of seven teams. Austria, the gold-medal team from Are’s nations team event, was first Friday, with Canada second and Switzerland third.
    Italy was fourth, France fifth, the United States sixth and Sweden seventh.
    Resi Stiegler, a slalom standout, was solid enough in her super G run to place the U.S. team fifth after the opening leg. The men’s leg followed, but Bode Miller skied wide and lost precious time midway down the course, finishing last among the seven men in his leg.
    “Bode was a little low coming off the turns in the pitch and made a mistake,” U.S. head men’s speed coach Chris Brigham said. “Our plan was to run it with a little more space. With the girls [running first], we hadn’t seen any guys except for [Patrik] Jaerbyn, who came down ahead of him, and he blew it too, so that was tough.”
    Stacey Cook could manage just the sixth-fastest super G run in the next leg, but Steven Nyman’s solid super G run (third-fastest out of seven) allowed the U.S. team to move up one notch.
    “Bode’s [course] report really helped," Nyman said. "Where he went out we had thought we could belly the delay but it was too rough and you needed a really quick tempo to get over in time.”
    “Steven skied quite well. He’s tired, it’s the end of the season, but he still had a good time out there,” Brigham said.
    Stiegler, Kaylin Richardson, Miller and Ted Ligety are expected to compete in the slalom, which was set to start at 12:30 local time.
    “I was happy with my run,” said Stiegler, who is ranked 69th in SG but 16th in slalom. “Now it is my turn to perform.”
    Austria led after Mario Scheiber and Andrea Fischbacher won their heats. The Canadians were second following strong performances from Francois Bourque and Erik Guay. Host Switzerland had been second but dropped to third after Marc Berthod finished second-slowest in the final heat.
    Seven teams of six skiers were in the event at the World Cup Finals. Two men and two women raced one super-G each in the morning, and four raced in the slalom heats later in the day.
    Austria finished the super G heats with seven points. Canada had 11 and Switzerland 14. Italy was fourth with 15, followed by France with 19.
    The U.S. entered its best men, but the country’s top two women were absent. Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso, who is still trying to catch two Austrians in the chase for the World Cup overall title, skipped the team event to rest for the weekend’s slalom and giant slalom. Lindsey Kildow is out for the season after injuring her knee in slalom training at the World Championships in Are, Sweden, last month.

Nyman targets Alaska
    Nyman’s World Cup season is done. He’ll set his sights on medals at the U.S. national championships in Alyeska later this month.
    “Steven’s going home for a well-deserved break. Second year full-time on the World Cup, he’s a little banged up right now and needs some time off,” Brigham said.
    Nyman finished the season ranked 10th in downhill, 25th in super G and 24th overall (with two tech races remaining).
    “For the second half of his season, he skied very well, but it was also at places where he’d only been once or hadn’t been to yet,” Brigham said. “The kid has so much speed and he put himself in situations where his speed was faster than his ability was for that particular situation. Results aside, he skied very well in the second half of the season. Sometimes results come, sometimes they don’t.
    “I would say that’s the general story for a lot of the other guys on the speed team. Through the end of the year we had some really good skiing, just not putting it down and getting the results that people are expecting. We’re still very happy with how everything went.”
    Brigham was relieved that Miller secured the coveted super G crystal globe on Thursday.
    “Bode’s given [titles] to us before. I was a nervous wreck all morning,” the coach said. “I knew he just had to be 10th or 11th or better, but we saw the course set in the morning and it was super tight, skied more like a giant slalom, more suited to the GS skiers, which was up his alley, but you never know what’s going to happen with ‘the Bode show.’ ”

— Gary Black Jr. contributed to this report


Lenzerheide World Cup team event results
After the super G leg

1. Austria, 7 points.
2. Canada, 11.
3. Switzerland, 14.
4. Italy, 15.
5. France, 19.
6. United States, 21.
7. Sweden, 22.

Super G
Heat 1

1. Andrea Fischbacher, Austria, 49.43.
2. Daniela Merighetti, Italy, 50.04.
3. Emily Brydon, Canada, 50.15.
(tie) Fraenzi Aufdenblatten, Switzerland, 50.15.
5. Resi Stiegler, United States, 50.62.
6. Ingrid Jacquemod, France, 50.69.
Did Not Start (7 points): Sweden.

Heat 2
1. Francois Bourque, Canada, 47.37.
2. Christoph Gruber, Austria, 48.01.
3. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 48.02.
4. Peter Fill, Italy, 48.49.
5. Julien Lizeroux, France, 48.96.
6. Patrik Jaerbyn, Sweden, 49.88.
7. Bode Miller, United States, 51.45.

Heat 3
1. Marie Marchand-Arvier, France, 50.04.
2. Nadia Styger, Switzerland, 50.37.
3. Michaela Kirchgasser, Austria, 50.77.
4. Britt Janyk, Canada, 51.08.
(tie) Anna Ottosson, Sweden, 51.08.
6. Stacey Cook, United States, 51.20.
Did Not Start (7 points): Italy.

Heat 4
1. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 47.30.
2. Massimiliano Blardone, Italy, 47.85.
3. Steven Nyman, United States, 48.09.
(tie) Erik Guay, Canada, 48.09.
5. Niklas Rainer, Sweden, 48.11.
6. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 48.82.
7. Yannick Bertrand, France, 49.05.

Share This Article

About the Author: Pete Rugh