Junior Worlds: Odermatt Wins Super G
Two days after racing to downhill gold, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt was a dominant winner in a tricky super-G on 2nd February 2018. His time of 1:07.59 proved 0.88 seconds faster than American River Radamus, with Luke Winters (USA) in third (+0.91).
“Adding a second gold medal in just two days is a dream come true. It makes me really happy I could lay down such a perfect run on this tricky course and end up on top of the podium again. It is very special to win in my home country. I feel I can give something back to the organisers and volunteers who are putting in so much effort”, the happy winner said.
20-year-old Odermatt now owns a collection of four medals from Junior World Championships. His super-G and downhill gold came in addition to giant slalom gold and super-G bronze from the 2016 edition in Sochi (RUS).
Radamus earned his second medal after taking silver in alpine combined in Are (SWE) 2017. For Winters, it was his first medal on the international stage.
It proved to be a tricky super-G course on the Jakobshorn with many athletes dropping out. Following strong snowfalls from the previous day, the course had to be cleared off in the morning hours. The race was initially scheduled for 10:00 CET but had to be postponed to 12:00 CET in order to allow best possible conditions for the athletes.
Other noteworthy takeaways from the race include a total of nine nations landing in the top 15 (SUI, USA, SWE, NOR, CZE, ITA, FRA, AUT, CAN). The starting field consisted of 95 racers.
It was a big day at FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Davos, Switzerland for the Americans, who walked away from the super-G with a double podium. Three-time Youth Olympic Games gold medalist River Radamus (Edwards, Colo./Ski & Snowboard Club Vail ) grabbed the silver medal, while teammate Luke Winters (Gresham, Ore./Sugar Bowl Academy) snagged the bronze medal. Kyle Negomir (Littleton, Colo./Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) was also in the top 10, tying for seventh.
After a heavy amount of snowfall on Thursday, the men had to deal with weather delays but remained focused with their eyes on the prize. Alpine Development Director Chip Knight shared that the organizers made an impressive effort to get the race off, using snowblowers to move the new snow out of the race track, and snowcats to smooth out the berms on the side of the trail. He was very impressed with the performance of all three athletes.
"River, Luke, and Kyle each did a tremendous job with their inspection, adapting to new information from the coaches’ course reports, and then executing a revised plan while flowing with the speed and terrain," noted Knight. "As with any speed event, it’s a team effort among the athletes, coaches, and service technicians. The whole group pulled together really well today, and the strong results are a reflection of that operation."
Winters, who is competing ath the Junior Worlds for the first time, was thrilled to land on the podium. "Today was definitely one to remember," he said. "This is my first and last time at world juniors, so getting a bronze medal early in the race series is a huge accomplishment for me. Sharing the podium on the world stage like that with your teammate was exciting."
Winters also commended the organizers for prepping the track well despite the challenging weather. "There were parts of the course today that were not easy. Starting second, I had to stick with the plan and ski aggressive, and it worked out. The course was in perfect condition, thanks to all the course workers, after receiving a foot of snow the day before."
He now looks ahead to the rest of the race series with optimism and confidence. "With that said, lots of racing to do here, team event tomorrow, followed by the alpine combined, then finishing off with slalom and giant slalom to end the trip. I can promise you there will be more of this to come!"
Matthew Macaluso (Vail, Colo./Ski & Snowboard Club Vail) and George Steffey (Lyme, N.H./Stratton Mountain School) also started in Friday's super-G, but did not finish.
Earlier in the week, A.J. Hurt (Carnelian Bay, Calif./Squaw Valley Ski Team) finished eighth in the giant slalom and Katie Hensien (Redmond, Wash./Rowmark Ski Academy) followed that up with a fourth in slalom. Both athletes made their FIS Ski World Cup debuts in the 2017-18 season.
For full results, click here.
After four medal events, Switzerland currently leads the medal rankings with four medals (two gold, two bronze) ahead of Austria with three (one gold, two silver) and Slovenia with one (gold).
Action continues with the Team Event on Saturday, 3rd February at 17:00 CET. Follow the action on livestream: https://www.swiss-ski.ch/davos2018
