Kriechmayr Wins Kitz Super-G

Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr earned his first career victory in Kitzbühel at today’s Audi FIS World Cup super-G race.

For Kriechmayr, it was his first victory of the season and his third podium of the year. Coming down wit bib #5 he bumped Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt out of the leader chairs with a 0.12 advantage. Odermatt would hang on for the second-place finish, taking his first super-G podium of the season.

Third place went to Matthias Mayer, who pulled off the very rare feat of earning three podium places in one weekend in Kitzbühel. Mayer earned a second and third place finish in the two downhills and adds today’s third place podium to his resume.

The Austrians had a strong showing today placing four athletes in the top-10. In the last two seasons, the Austrians and Swiss have had unbelievable success in Kitzbühel with the two nations combining for 10 of the total 15 podium places up for grabs.

For the USA Travis Ganong was again the top Alpine Ski Team member in Monday's rescheduled Hahnenkamm super-G in Kitzbuehel, Austria, finishing 27th. Jared Goldberg also finished in the points in 30th.

In a rescheduled super-G, pushed from Sunday to Monday due to weather on Saturday, the conditions changed drastically—from grippy snow to a sheet of ice—and there were 13 DNFs. The sun once again stayed behind the clouds...at least for most of the field. In a sport where there are more variables than one can fathom, the light can have a drastic difference from one racer to the next. Such was the case on Monday. This change enabled guys from the back of the pack to capitalize—including France's Matthieu Bailet, who went from bib 50 to eighth. Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria won, with Switzerland's Marco Odermatt in second and Austria's Matthias Mayer rounding out the podium in third, making it his third podium at Kizbuehel in this 81st edition.

Goldberg, who was "iced" (experienced a long course hold in the start gate) in both Friday and Sunday's downhills, had yet another long course hold, as the Italian who started before him crashed and was taken to the hospital by helicopter. Goldberg said about the guy who worked the start gate, "I've gotten to know him. Spent quite a lot of time with him over the last few days. He looked back at me today, and hesitantly said, 'stop-start'...and then he added, 'It's going to be a while.'" At the top of the course, Goldberg caught the most air he's ever caught in a super-G but was skiing fast and solid before a mistake on the bumpy and dark traverse at the bottom—the same place where teammate Ganong made a mistake and lost time.

Ganong was once again the top American man in Kitzbuehel, grabbing points in 27th. Rounding out the U.S. Alpine Ski Team, Jared Goldberg finished in the points in 30th from bib 48. Bryce Bennett was 36th. 

With both season super-g season leaders suffering season-ending injuries in the last few weeks in training accidents, today’s race was a test to see who would step up to become the favorite in the discipline. If anything, what was learned was that the rest of the season will be a fight for the small globe as the field is very evenly distributed among the top-10 athletes.