Kriechmayr Wins, Nyman Opts Out of Racing

As the clouds rolled in and out on Friday morning for the men’s World Cup super-G in Beaver Creek, Colo., Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr found himself sitting in the hot seat. After a break in the cloud cover illuminated the Birds of Prey venue just enough for the 26-year-old to take advantage of an early start number, the Austrian survived challenger after challenger en route to his maiden World Cup victory.

Joining Kriechmayr on the podium was the veteran duo of Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud and fellow Austrian Hannes Reichelt who finished 0.23 and 0.33 seconds back in second and third, respectively.

“This has never happened to me before, so hopefully it’s not the last time,” said Kriechmayr, who also scored his first World Cup points at the venue back in 2013. “This is one of the toughest super-Gs in the world. In super-G, you always have to attack, you can’t win without attacking.”

Unfortunately, for the American contingent team leader Steven Nyman has elected to sit out this weekend’s racing in favor of forerunning the super-G and downhill as he continues his return from injury. Nyman also participated in the training runs last week in Lake Louise, Canada, without making the start list on race day.

The #BirdsofPrey SG is tomorrow! It’s going to be live on NBCSN 10:45 AM MST. Be sure to tune in. I’m sad to say I won’t be racing but I will be forerunning. It was a hard decision to make but I’m not race ready yet. But it is a pleasure to run this incredible track once again and big props to @vvfoundation and the #taloncrew for all the hard work in making this race happen. ? @swingmanphoto #americandownhiller

A post shared by Steven Nyman (@steven_nyman) on Nov 30, 2017 at 9:17pm PST

The day didn’t go much better for the rest of the American squad as the team was led by veteran Andrew Weibrecht in 21st place with Thomas Biesemeyer finishing in 24th as the only other American top-30 finisher.

“It was just a tough day to really charge,” Weibrecht said in the finish. “The light was in and out, some guys had it good and you could see them really put the pedal down. I think we’ve got some work to do as a team; we’ve been on relatively easy hills and when we get here we’re not necessarily up to speed. We’ve just got to come together and figure it out. It was a tricky set but that’s no reason why we shouldn’t have done better.”

After Weibrecht and Biesemeyer, Travis Ganong was the next American in 33rd, followed by Bryce Bennett, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, and Sam Morse finishing in 46th, 47th, and 48th, respectively. Ted Ligety, Jared Goldberg, and Wiley Maple all failed to finish as the American team is left looking for answers heading into Saturday’s downhill.

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Top 10

1. Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

2. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR) – Head/Head/Head

3. Hannes Reichelt (AUT) – Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

4. Adrien Theaux (FRA) – Head/Head/Head

5. Alexis Pinturault (FRA) – Head/Head/Head

6. Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR) – Head/Head/Head

6. Matthias Mayer (AUT) – Head/Head/Head

8. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) – Head/Head/Head

9. Andreas Sander (GER) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

10. Thomas Dressen (GER) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look

Official Results