Merryweather, Morse crowned Junior World Champions in downhill

This week, Are, Sweden, is playing host to the alpine skiing World Junior Championships as part of their preparations for the 2019 World Championships. The best junior ski racers from around the world have descended on this Scandinavian venue to take their shot at a title.

Among them are Alice Merryweather and Sam Morse from the United States, who dominated the competition on day one to win the women’s and men’s downhill races.

In the ladies’ race, Merryweather won with a total time of 1:25.27, only a slim 0.02 second margin over Katja Grossman of Switzerland. World Cup regular Kira Weidle of Germany rounded out the podium in third, 0.43 seconds off the American’s pace. Merryweather is the first U.S. woman to win the Junior World Championship downhill title since Olympic gold medalist Julia Mancuso in 2002.

“It’s crazy,” Merryweather said. “This is my fourth time at Junior Worlds, and I watched girls go up on the podium the past three years, and I always wanted to be that person and hear the national anthem. It’s pretty unreal to actually be that person.”

Merryweather, a Stratton Mountain School alumnae, has had a strong season so far, particularly on the NorAm circuit where she leads the downhill standings.

“I had some strong finishes in the Europa Cups that I did in January in downhill,” she explained. “That and the NorAms, especially in Copper, definitely gave me confidence coming into this.”

The next best American woman was Galena Wardle in 16th. Behind her was Nina O’Brien in 24th while Rachael Desrochers and Maureen Lebel finished in 35th and 36th, respectively. Patricia Mangan was disqualified.

On the men’s side, Morse made an impressive jump from bib 30 to win the race with a total time of 1:23.34, snatching the Junior World Champion title from his teammate Erik Arvidsson, who won last year. Italian athlete Alexander Prast came in 0.38 seconds behind him to take second place while Austria’s Raphael Haaser made a huge leap from bib 5o to land in third place, 0.50 seconds off the pace.

“To have this success early on takes the weight off my shoulders for the upcoming competitions,” Morse said. “I have been working hard towards this and it now pays off. Overall, it was a great day for the U.S. team. It seems we really show up for big race days. In training, we are a bit remote, but on race days we are ready to roll.”

Morse, a Carrabassett Valley Academy alumnus, came into this race in fourth in the NorAm downhill standings and 17th in the overall standings. This is his first win in any FIS race this season, so he certainly knows how to turn up the speed when it counts.

The U.S. Ski Team’s River Radamus was just under a second behind Morse, coming in 10th place. George Steffey finished the day in 23rd while Florian Szwebel came in 64th. Arvidsson did not finish.

Junior World Championship racing continues with the men’s and women’s super-G races on Thursday.

Official Women’s Results

Official Men’s Results