Guay golden in St. Moritz super-G

By Published On: February 8th, 2017Comments Off on Guay golden in St. Moritz super-G

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — Overcast skies couldn’t put a damper on our neighbors to the North as Canada turned in two amazing performances from veterans Erik Guay and Manuel Osborne-Paradis. The duo took first and third, respectively, in the 2017 World Championship super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland on Wednesday. Guay’s winning time of 1:25.38 bested Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud by 0.45 seconds and was 0.51 seconds better than Osborne-Paradis.

High cloud cover cast the mountain in dark shadows all day, and it was apparent during inspection that the fast set and blind terrain combined with the flat light would require a delicate combination of skill and bravery in order to walk away with a medal. Jansrud looked to have laid down the gauntlet with bib nine, but Guay managed to build his lead at each interval before nailing a tricky low-speed left-foot, right-foot, left-foot combination entering the final turns to seal the win with bib 14. Inspired by his teammate’s performance, Osborne-Paradis charged from bib 26 to take third.

Wednesday’s result gave Canada its first multiple podium finish since 1982 when Gerry Sorensen finished first and Laurie Graham third in the women’s downhill in Grindelwald, Switzerland.

After walking away from a terrifying crash two weeks ago in Garmisch, Germany, Guay was happy to just be healthy and competing in St. Moritz. Wednesday’s win is Guay’s second career World Championship title, as the Canadian Cowboy also won the 2011 downhill gold in Garmisch, Germany. Guay is also now the oldest World Champion ever at 35 years old.

“Before I saw the green light, I crossed the line and I saw the crowd react,” Guay said. “I saw everybody stand up and cheer, so I knew that something good just happened. When I sort of turned sideways and saw the green light by 45-hundredths in front of Jansrud it was incredible ‘cause he’s such an incredible skier and dominating super-G, so I was quite emotional actually. I’m glad I had goggles on so nobody could see my eyes.”

Although Jansrud has been the man to beat this season in super-G, the Attacking Viking was pleased to walk away with a silver medal, especially since he has been battling a bit of sickness since the beginning of the week.

SANKT MORITZ,SWITZERLAND,08.FEB.17 - ALPINE SKIING - FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, Super G, men. Image shows Kjetil Jansrud (NOR), Erik Guay (CAN) and Manuel Osborne-Paradis (CAN). Photo: GEPA pictures/ Andreas Pranter

Photo: GEPA pictures/ Andreas Pranter

“I always want to aim for the gold, but I think Erik today showed us how it’s supposed to be done, and it’s very impressive,” a gracious Jansrud said. “I’m not feeling any disappointment over that. I’m very happy with the silver. Been struggling a little bit with the preparation coming into the World Champs with a little sickness and you know, for me, it’s a perfect day and I’m looking forward for downhill.”

Osborne-Paradis admitted that his performance might not have been possible if not for the emotional boost he got from watching his teammate go into the lead. The cherry on top, however, was this result came on his 33rd birthday and was his first super-G podium since winning in Lake Louise in 2009.

“I figured with a later number that I would have to have a good one,” he explained. “I was skiing really well. Skiing my line. Had one little mistake in the middle, and mistakes happen when you’re givin’ ‘er, so whatever. What can you do? It just all worked out. It feels so good. I mean I feel bad that we’re doing interviews and I haven’t seen my serviceman, I haven’t seen my coaches. I think it’s my serviceman’s first podium ever, World Cup or World Champs or anything, so I’m super excited for him. It’s just so good to share it with Erik. For him to be the winner, I mean, I think I was able to get third today because he won. I was so jazzed in the start. I had so much more energy. It was pretty cool.”

It was a frustrating start for the Americans as Travis Ganong led the pack with a 14th-place finish followed by Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 28th. Andrew Weibrecht missed a gate and Tommy Biesemeyer looked to be on pace for a possible top-five finish before ending up on his hip, dislocating his shoulder in the process.

“It was a really tricky super-G just because it was so straight, no rhythm at all,” Ganong said of his race. “We knew the speeds were going to be fast, but not that fast. The jumps were bigger than in the downhill which made it really difficult, especially for me going early. I was expecting to land off the jumps and have time to roll into the next turn and it was more like switching in the air and landing on edge. When you go early, you don’t really know that yet. I was happy with my skiing for the most part, I just missed the timing.”

Olivier Jenot of Monaco suffered a violent crash off of one of the jumps after getting twisted in the air and landing hard on his back. The Monacan was airlifted off of the hill and his condition is currently unknown. We will update this story once we have more details on the extent of his injuries.

The men now have downhill training on Thursday before the downhill race on Saturday, Feb. 11.

View photo gallery from today’s race here. 


Top 10

  1. Erik Guay (CAN) – Head/Head/Head
  2. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR) – Head/Head/Head
  3. Manuel Osborne-Paradis (CAN) – Head/Head/Head
  4. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  5. Vincent Kreichmayr (AUT) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  6. Alexis Pinturault (FRA) – Head/Head/Head
  7. Andreas Sander (GER) – Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  8. Carlo Janka (SUI) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
  9. Dominik Pairs (ITA) – Nordica/Nordica/Marker
  10. Hannes Reichelt (AUT) – Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Official Results

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time Diff.
 1  14  102263 GUAY Erik 1981 CAN  1:25.38
 2  9  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil 1985 NOR  1:25.83  +0.45
 3  26  102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel 1984 CAN  1:25.89  +0.51
 4  13  422139 KILDE Aleksander Aamodt 1992 NOR  1:25.92  +0.54
 5  1  53980 KRIECHMAYR Vincent 1991 AUT  1:26.26  +0.88
 6  8  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis 1991 FRA  1:26.28  +0.90
 7  6  200379 SANDER Andreas 1989 GER  1:26.35  +0.97
 8  19  511313 JANKA Carlo 1986 SUI  1:26.37  +0.99
 9  7  291459 PARIS Dominik 1989 ITA  1:26.40  +1.02
 10  17  50742 REICHELT Hannes 1980 AUT  1:26.47  +1.09
 11  3  292455 FILL Peter 1982 ITA  1:26.49  +1.11
 12  5  511383 FEUZ Beat 1987 SUI  1:26.51  +1.13
 13  11  53817 FRANZ Max 1989 AUT  1:26.75  +1.37
 14  28  194298 GIEZENDANNER Blaise 1991 FRA  1:26.96  +1.58
 14  4  530874 GANONG Travis 1988 USA  1:26.96  +1.58
 16  2  192746 THEAUX Adrien 1984 FRA  1:26.99  +1.61
 17  34  561255 CATER Martin 1992 SLO  1:27.19  +1.81
 18  25  194190 ROGER Brice 1990 FRA  1:27.22  +1.84
 19  23  990081 CASSE Mattia 1990 ITA  1:27.29  +1.91
 20  24  511513 CAVIEZEL Mauro 1988 SUI  1:27.30  +1.92
 21  20  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel 1989 AUT  1:27.43  +2.05
 22  22  511139 KUENG Patrick 1984 SUI  1:27.44  +2.06
 23  31  6290985 BUZZI Emanuele 1994 ITA  1:27.54  +2.16
 24  38  561310 HROBAT Miha 1995 SLO  1:27.76  +2.38
 25  33  422073 NETELAND Bjoernar 1991 NOR  1:28.18  +2.80
 26  16  202059 FERSTL Josef 1988 GER  1:28.22  +2.84
 27  45  170131 FAARUP Christoffer 1992 DEN  1:28.24  +2.86
 28  43  6530319 COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan 1992 USA  1:28.76  +3.38
 29  46  110324 VON APPEN Henrik 1994 CHI  1:28.87  +3.49
 30  36  502004 KOELL Alexander 1990 SWE  1:28.94  +3.56
 31  53  380335 ZUBCIC Filip 1993 CRO  1:29.05  +3.67
 32  21  102271 HUDEC Jan 1981 CZE  1:29.31  +3.93
 33  37  20324 OLIVERAS Marc 1991 AND  1:29.35  +3.97
 34  39  410364 FEASEY Willis 1992 NZL  1:29.60  +4.22
 35  41  481327 TRIKHICHEV Pavel 1992 RUS  1:29.78  +4.40
 36  55  350095 PFIFFNER Marco 1994 LIE  1:29.81  +4.43
 37  52  430429 BYDLINSKI Maciej 1988 POL  1:29.83  +4.45
 38  54  430472 KLUSAK Michal 1990 POL  1:30.19  +4.81
 39  49  150743 BERNDT Ondrej 1988 CZE  1:30.40  +5.02
 40  58  151238 ZABYSTRAN Jan 1998 CZE  1:30.64  +5.26
 41  44  410365 BARWOOD Adam 1992 NZL  1:32.82  +7.44
 42  60  670037 ZAKURDAEV Igor 1987 KAZ  1:34.68  +9.30
Did not finish 1st run
 59  110383 VON APPEN Sven 1997 CHI
 57  700879 ZAMPA Andreas 1993 SVK
 56  40577 LAIDLAW Harry 1996 AUS
 51  380341 ULLRICH Max 1994 CRO
 50  700830 ZAMPA Adam 1990 SVK
 48  150644 KRYZL Krystof 1986 CZE
 47  370022 JENOT Olivier 1988 MON
 42  310426 VUKICEVIC Marko 1992 SRB
 40  481730 KUZNETSOV Ivan 1996 RUS
 35  501987 MONSEN Felix 1994 SWE
 32  20398 VERDU Joan 1995 AND
 30  561217 KOSI Klemen 1991 SLO
 29  202535 DRESSEN Thomas 1993 GER
 27  531452 BIESEMEYER Thomas 1989 USA
 18  530939 WEIBRECHT Andrew 1986 USA
 15  53902 MAYER Matthias 1990 AUT
 12  100558 COOK Dustin 1989 CAN
 10  561216 KLINE Bostjan 1991 SLO

 

 

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About the Author: Sean Higgins

A Lake Tahoe native and University of Vermont graduate, Higgins was a member of the Catamounts' 2012 NCAA title winning squad and earned first team All-American honors in 2013. Prior to coming to Ski Racing Media, he coached U14s for the Squaw Valley Ski Team.