Switzerland's Marco Odermatt repeated his past success in Beaver Creek, taking the lead by 0.78 seconds over Austria's Matthias Mayer. Canada's Broderick Thompson shocked the start order, skiing from the back of the pack in bib 35 to snag third by three-hundredths of a second.
The track has a reputation for touting grippy, hero-snow, that is fast, yet controlled, and an absolute blast for the athletes to compete on. But Thursday's warm conditions upped the pace. Fast snow, a bumpy course, and a turny course set made for a race that set the tone for a weekend – fight hard, it's anyone's game. By the conclusion of the race, 15 men had DNFed, including top speed competitors such as Dominik Paris, Max Franz, and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt repeated his past success in Beaver Creek, taking the lead by 0.78 seconds over Austria's Matthias Mayer. Canada's Broderick Thompson shocked the start order, skiing from the back of the pack in bib 35 to snag third by three-hundredths of a second.
After already having won the giant slalom in Sölden (AUT), and placing fourth in the downhill in Lake Louise (CAN), the Swiss skier is already showing he will be a force to be reckoned with this year.
Last season Odermatt came second in the super-G World Cup standings behind Vincent Kriechmayr, who is also the defending Super-G World Champion.
After winning the opening men’s downhill race of the season, Matthias Mayer (AUT), was out to get another win during the opening men’s Super G race, but he finished 0.78 seconds behind Odermatt. Mayer has yet to win a race in Beaver Creek, however, he has three chances left during the super week in Beaver Creek with a super-G and two donwhills still to come.
Another great moment of the day was to see the Swiss skier, Urs Kryenbuehl coming down the slope and finishing 16th. Today was Kryenbuehl’s first race since his horror accident in Kitzbuhel last January.
For the American men. Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the top U.S. finisher, skiing into a tie at 19th with Switzerland's Thomas Tumler. Travis Ganong tied for his position of 22nd with France's Mathieu Faivre. Both Cochran-Siegle and Ganong did what they could at the super-G season opener, which posed some issues for a majority of the men's field.
"I've had a lot of good races here, and today wasn't one of them, but it was still decent," Ganong commented after his run. "On a day like today when a bunch of people were missing the same gate it would have been nice to know how turny it was. But we have an opportunity to make it better tomorrow."
Ganong, who started ahead of Cochran-Siegle, and came into his run with little information about this particular turn that had caused a lot of the field trouble. So he stuck to his plan. Cochran-Siegle, on the other hand, received info that Ganong took the problem turn a bit too straight, which led him to stivvy his skis, and dump some speed in hopes of keeping it together and skiing a clean run. Unfortunately, he released a bit too much.
Edwards, Colo. native, River Radamus, also had a strong showing for a majority of his run, on track throughout each split to finish among the top 20 men of the group. Unfortunately, Radamus lost his grip on the course just a few gates before the finish and DNFed. He'll seek vengeance in the weekend's second super-G on Friday, Dec. 3rd. Fellow Americans Steven Nyman, Bryce Bennett, and Jared Goldberg finished 42nd, 43rd, and 46th.
