2023 Taos World Pro Ski Championships Super Slalom Results
Paula Moltzan of the U.S. Ski Team and Reto Schmidiger of Switzerland took away the top spots on the podium at today’s World Pro Ski Tour 2023 Taos World Championships Super Slalom.
Fresh snow and high winds caused lengthy course delays, but racing got underway shortly after noon at Taos Ski Valley’s Kachina Basin. Competitors included a deeply talented field of Olympians, World Champions, World Cup athletes and NCAA racers who traveled to New Mexico to try their luck on the dual courses.
WOMEN
The women’s field promised tight races between the likes of 2022 World Champion, Olympian and FIS World Championships gold medalist, Paula Moltzan, and 4-time Olympian and current Tour leader, Erin Mielzynski of Canada. While Mielzynski has dominated the last two stops on the Tour, this was Moltzan’s first return to the pro format since winning the World Championships Overall title in Taos last year.
Starting from Round of 16, Mielzynski earned a bye with the fastest qualifying time. She took on Sweden’s Emma Hammergard in the round of eight and swiftly eliminated the current University of Colorado athlete. Tricia Mangan is a two-time Olympian focusing on the World Cup speed circuit, but showed her solid abilities in the tech discipline today by moving onto the semi-finals after defeating Canada’s Candace Crawford in the round of eight.
Fellow Norwegians Mina Holtmann and Marte Monsen faced one another in the round of 8 as they skied the majority of the course neck and neck, with Monsen progressing to face Paula Moltzan. Moltzan had taken care of Evelina Fredricsson of Sweden, who won the first Tour stop in Steamboat this season. This left Mielzynski vs Mangan in the first semifinal bracket and Monsen vs Moltzan in the second.
Mielzynski and Mangan dueled it out, with Mangan taking risks at every gate that led to a big crash and Mielzynski skied to a spot in the finals. The Monsen/Moltzan pairing left less to chance with Moltzan leading the charge in both heats.
In the small final, Tricia Mangan skied the top of the course with more caution, but sped up after the third jump and crashed through the finish in the first run against Monsen. The second run was a nail-biter to the end, but again, Mangan lost control and crashed three gates from the finish, putting Monsen in third and Mangan in fourth.
In the big final of the CLCKR Women’s Super Slalom, Moltzan pulled off a clear first-run victory against Mielzynski, who was skiing less confidently than usual. Moltzan led the second run against Mielzynski, but nearly lost it all after catching an edge, but was able to recover and ski to victory for a $20,000 purse.
1st: Moltzan
2nd: Mielzynski
3rd: Monsen
4th: Mangan
MEN
Once racers began kicking out of the gates for the men’s round of 32, intensity quickly heated up with River Radamus meeting double Olympic gold medalist, Ted Ligety. In a press conference the evening before, both athletes joked about wanting to face one another on the dual course, and qualifying times matched them up in the first round with the new FIS World Champion gold medalist, Radamus, taking the victory. The other tight race in the Round of 32 was between Jeremie Lagier of France against Tour regular Miha Keurner, of Slovenia. Lagier and Keurner qualified 6th and 7th respectively, making their pairing the closest in this round, with Kuerner narrowly taking the win.
Into the Round of 16, Radamus was eliminated by Czechoslovakia’s Filip Forejtek, who skis for the University of Colorado Buffalos and outskied Radamus to advance. The 6’6” Forejtek continued his run through to the finals with strong, dominant efforts amidst challenging course conditions. Former World Cupper, Wiley Maple of Aspen, matched up against Canadian Erik Read, and Maple handily eliminated the first of the Reads he would face in the day.
The wind picked up in the Round of 8 and mild delays were encountered for course maintenance. Forejtek met Leif Nestvold-Haugan, a decorated World Cup athlete for Norway’s Fighting Vikings. Haugan clipped a gate low and injured his hand and Forejtek advanced to the final four. David Ketterer of Germany, who dominated the Tour with back-to-back wins on the last Tour stop in Bear Valley faced Michael Ankeny, a U.S. Ski Team veteran and after two runs narrowly put Ankeny away. The intense Austrian-Bolivian Olympian Simon Breitfuss-Kammerlander, current season Tour leader, faced Reto Schmidiger and after a tight first run, SBK fell in the second run, dislocating his shoulder. The last pairing on the round of eight was Maple and Jeff Read, who fell after leading the second run and allowed Maple to advance.
In the semi-final round, Forejtek eliminated David Ketterer with his continued strong skiing, while Ketterer began to look fatigued. Maple met Schimidger with a narrow lead in the first run, but Schmidiger outskied him in the second to advance to the finals. That brought Ketterer and Maple together in the small final; after the first run, Maple had the advantage with both athletes clearly pushing to their limits after the long day. In the second run, Maple skied out and Ketterer came away with third place.
The finals saw Forejtek skiing aggressively, but he ultimately missed the last gate in his first run. In the second heat, he faced the max differential and barged the gates, leaving him unable to make up for that lost time against the very precise Schmidiger, who walked away with the $20,000 check and 2023 Super Slalom World Champion title.
1st: Schmidinger
2nd: Forejtek
3rd: Ketterer
4th: Maple
