Ledecka Shocks the Field, and Herself

On Friday, she once again stunned both her competitors and herself, winning not only the first World Cup speed race of the season but also the first World Cup race of her career. Ledecka had been skiing well in training. In fact, she finished fifth just the day before. Yet a win, given her late starting position (bib 26) and history of execution on race day, was unexpected. Maybe 26 is her lucky number?

“This is my first win, actually, it’s my first top six,” said Ledecka. “I’m quite surprised. It’s always good when I have some confident runs in the trainings, but I already had good runs in the previous races in the trainings – I’ve won two trainings before – and then I did not do that good in the race after. But this time I think I fixed my mistakes from my last runs in the trainings and everything went in the right direction and I’m happy.”

Ledecka’s win, 0.35 seconds over Switzerland’s Corinne Suter, was also a surprise given the conditions of the course. Non-stop snow showered down on the track in Lake Louise before, during, and after, the first women’s downhill of the season. The jury had chosen to start the race at the reserve start before inspection even opened. Volunteers and course workers shoveled, plowed, and groomed tirelessly to keep the course and the boundaries intact. After an hour start delay, the snow was still coming down hard, and coaches and athletes alike expected the race to be canceled. Yet somehow, the show went on.

“There were definitely some nerves, it was kind of a rollercoaster of a day,” said USA’s Alice Merryweather, who tied for 21st with Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather. “I was nervous first thing in the morning, then once I inspected I knew exactly where I wanted to be in the course and was feeling really good. And then we kept getting delayed and I admit I checked out for a little while in the lodge just watching it continue to snow heavily all day, I just thought “ah there’s no chance this is gonna happen” and then, sure enough, we got the message like “okay we’re on” and the nerves came back.”

Despite the incessant snowing, the course seemed to hold up well. Where the danger came in was on the outside of the course. If an athlete were to get late on a turn, they would run the risk of skiing into powder, and downhill skis, high speeds, and powder do not mix. Fortunately, a majority of the field made it down the course without getting caught up in the snow. Yesterday, quite a few athletes missed turns during training or had skied out of the course. Mikaela Shiffrin was one of those athletes.

“I was pretty bummed yesterday, obviously no one likes to DNF,” said Shiffrin. “But with training runs, I feel like it’s pretty common that girls DQ because you’re trying lines, you’re trying to be aggressive and see what’s possible. It was a good reminder that I need to be smart in sections. I think there are some spots on this hill that I feel really good about, but then when I get to it, I take my line a little bit too aggressively and it feels harsher than it does fluid. So today, I was a little bit more just skiing through that section versus being really aggressive.”

Shiffrin finished the day in tenth overall, 0.96 seconds out from Ledecka. When asked about whether or not nerves played a role in Friday’s race given the snow and the delays, she said she was just psyched the first speed race of the season actually happened and didn’t get canceled. Merryweather said the U.S. women’s team as a whole felt that way coming in, jamming out to John Denver in the car on the way to the venue and trying to keep the energy buzzing throughout the lulls of the day. Fellow Americans Bella Wright and Alix Wilkinson both had their first World Cup starts to look forward to, and Alice McKennis and Jackie Wiles were skiing in their first race back on the World Cup after overcoming major injuries that kept them off the tour for over a year.

“I had a really good start and then at the top I got pushed a little low and could feel myself getting into the soft stuff and at that point I just killed all my speed,” said Wiles. “I’m very disappointed with my result, but it’s a first good step. Today is a huge positive, it’s been 22 months, almost two years basically since I raced last. So I think after questioning at times whether I could get back, this is a huge step in perseverance and believing I can do it and I think I have to be really proud of just even starting today.”

Unfortunately, the single athlete that got caught up in the loose powder was the USA’s AJ Hurt. Hurt had to be airlifted off the course and will be sitting out Saturday’s downhill as she undergoes further inspection of a suspected right knee injury.

By the end of the day, the weather appeared to be letting up, which could mean that the women will be able to ski the full track Saturday. Being able to start from the true top of the course could give certain athletes an advantage by allowing them to reach higher speeds before coming into the more technical sections of the course. Both Suter and third-place finisher Venier commented that they hope to see the race start at the regulation start tomorrow for that reason. A podium finish the first downhill race of the year is not bad, but both the Swiss woman and the Austrian are hungry for a win.

Venier is not the only Austrian vying for the top slot. On Friday, the women’s speed team once again showed their depth when six women finished in the top 15. Nina Ortlieb, skied into fourth from bib 30, tying Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg. Nicole Schmidhofer, last year’s Lake Louise winner on both days, finished seventh.

Another woman to watch going into day two of the downhill on Saturday is Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie. The 21-year-old won both training days and was able to keep the nerves at bay on race day with a solid finish in 11th.

Friday’s best Canadian finisher was Marie-Michele Gagnon, coming down in 28th after a wild ride late in the course. Gagnon’s finish is the first time she has scored points in the downhill in over six years.

Downhill Day 1 Top 10

• 1. Ester Ledecka (CZE) – 1:31.87 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
• 2. Corinne Suter (SUI): +0.35 – Head/Head/Head
• 3. Stephanie Venier (AUT): +0.45 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
• 4. Nina Ortlieb (AUT): +0.66 – Head/Head/Head
• 4. Viktoria Rebensburg (GER): +0.66 – Stoeckli/Lange
• 6. Sofia Goggia (ITA): +0.69 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
• 7. Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT): +0.74 –  Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
• 8. Kira Weidle (GER): +0.82 – Rossignol/Rossignol
• 9. Nicol Delago (ITA): +0.94 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
• 10. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA): +0.96 – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

For full race results, click here.