McDonald rolls to 2nd in Europa Cup slalom
U.S. racer Paul McDonald finished second in the FIS Europa Cup alpine skiing opener in the indoor SnowWorld in Landgraaf, Netherlands, Thursday.
LANDGRAAF, Netherlands — U.S. racer Paul McDonald finished second in the FIS Europa Cup alpine skiing opener in the indoor SnowWorld in Landgraaf, Netherlands, Thursday.
McDonald is aggressively rebounding from a back ailment that sidelined him last season. McDonald missed the bulk of the 2006-07 season after he was invited to the U.S. Ski Team from Dartmouth College.
“It’s a tremendous result for him,” U.S. men’s alpine head coach Phil McNichol said.
He has been training with the World Cup team in Austria, but will sit out the first slalom in Reiteralm this weekend. McNichol, however, plans to see him compete in the next race back in Austria in early December.
It’s the first U.S. Europa Cup men’s top-three result since December 2005.
Athletes skied three runs — two runs of slalom to determine the top 30 skiers who would compete in the final run as a Europa Cup race. Italy’s Christof Innerhofer won the final slalom run in 23.85 seconds, with McDonald the runner-up in 23.97; no other U.S. athlete qualified for the Europa Cup.
“This is huge,” U.S. Alpine Director Jesse Hunt said. “We had two slalom podiums — by Jimmy Cochran [on Dec. 13, 2005] and then Tom Rothrock two days later. We’ve been working hard for success on the Europa Cup, and McDonald’s result today shows he’s coming back strong and we’re making the progress we want.”
A number of former EISA collegiate skiers entered the race. Including McDonald from Dartmouth, the U.S. contingent had Jimmy Cochran (Middlebury and UVM), Roger Brown (Dartmouth), Paul Epstein (UVM), Chris Frank (Williams), Warner Nickerson (Colby), as well as Tim Kelley.
The men run another slalom Friday and then compete Sunday in Reiteralm, Austria, in the first World Cup slalom of the season.
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