Norway Wins Parallel Team Event

Finally, the sun came out at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, and FIS Ski World Cup Finals action kicked off with Friday's team event.
Norway claimed the victory in the Team Parallel event, edging Germany in the Big Final. The Norwegians came into today as the defending World Champions from Cortina.

The team of Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen, Sebastian Foss-Solevaag, Kristina Riis Johannessen und Kristin Lysdahl had close calls in every round as they finished all three in a 2-2 tie. But each time the Norwegians had the faster overall time and came out on top.

Norway dispatched the Americans in the quarterfinals, neighbor Sweden in the semi-finals before finally meeting Germany in the Big Final for first place. Norway won by a small margin. On Friday at Finals, the Americans took on Norway in the first heat, losing by a small margin yet again. Norway would move on not only to the 1/2 Final but eventually went on to win it all and snag yet another team event victory. Germany was second, while the Austrians rounded out the podium in third. The Americans ended up in seventh with U.S. Alpine Ski Team Alpine Director Jesse Hunt optimistic about the future for the Americans in this event. ".05 away from knocking out the first-place team," he said. "We are closing in on a breakthrough in the team event."

In the small final  the Austrians beating Sweden, also 2-2.

Today was one of the most competitive Team Events in recent memory, with every pairing ending deadlocked at two and ultimately decided on the time difference. Only the preliminary heat to determine the eighth starter in the quarterfinals had a 3-1 result with Sweden topping Great Britain.

The biggest surprise of the day came in first heat as Sweden topped Switzerland in a clash of the Team Event Titans.

The host nation has not had the best of luck so far at its home Finals. The cancellation of the speed events, left Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut without the chance to grab critical points in the hunt for the Overall Globe, while in the Team Event, the defending Olympic Champions in suffered the early out.

The Swiss will look to turn their luck over the weekend with the man’s and women’s slalom and giant slalom. Still up for grabs during the weekend races are the women’s slalom globe, the men’s giant slalom globe and both Overall globes.