USA's Bennett Wins First Career World Cup In Val Gardena DH, Goggia Wins In Val D'Isere
Heading into the downhill in Val Gardena/Groeden Norwegian skier, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was looking to be the favourite after having won the last two downhill races at the event and yesterday’s super-G. Starting the race with a large margin on the leader, Bryce Bennett (USA), Kilde had an unlucky landing on one of the jumps which led him to miss a gate. This meant that Bennett kept his place at the top of the leader board, to claim his very first downhill World Cup victory. The last American to win a downhill World Cup in Val Gardena/Groeden was Steven Nyman in 2014. Over the last two events in Val Gardena/Groeden, Bennett scored the most World Cup points on the Saslong, which saw him crowned winner of the DOLOMITES Val Gardena Südtirol Ski Trophy.
Otmar Striedinger (AUT) came in second place, with 0.14 seconds from Bennett’s pace. The last time Striedinger placed on a downhill podium was in 2020 in Val d’Isère (FRA). The Austrian pair, Kriechmayr and Mayer placed 14th and 16th, respectively, after making it on the podium in yesterday’s super-G.
Niels Hintermann will never forget the hill in Val Gardena/Groeden, as it was where he claimed his very first downhill podium. Hintermann was left speechless at the end of the race stating, that "last season was enormously complicated for me, physically and mentally, so today coming third feels amazing.”
With a euphoric scream and instant tears, 29-year-old Bryce Bennett crossed the finish line at the Val Gardena downhill with a near-perfect run and his first ever career FIS World Cup win. It was the first victory for an American downhiller in nearly five years.
It seemed to come out of nowhere for the cheering Italian fans, who had seen Bennett finish in the middle of the pack in the downhill training runs, but the California native knew he could be fast on this hill. He had scored a fourth place finish in last year’s World Cup in Val Gardena and Americans have ruled at the venue in the past. Bennett kept it close up top, just a few tenths behind the leader, when he came into the terrain-heavy Ciaslat section near the bottom and stepped on the gas. The 6-foot-7 skier, who grew up riding BMX bikes, worked the bumps to shoot through the finish in first place. He looked up at his time, screamed an expletive we can’t publish here, and hollered in joy as he realized what he had just done.
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about what a win would mean,” said Bennett. “It’s everything I thought it would be. I’ve been skiing poorly through the last few races, and here I felt really good and I just let it flow. It’s just frustrating when you have bad training runs and bad races, but here, anything can happen for me. I had a good plan. Honestly my expectations were a top 10 and then when I crossed the line and it was green, I was more than excited.”
Bennett hadn’t had a banner start to the season, finishing in the 20s and 30s in the North American races, but he knew he had fast skis and his confidence was high. He had recently switched over to his teammate Steven Nyman’s serviceman Leo Mussi, who has now accumulated eight wins on the Saslong in Val Gardena, including Nyman’s three career victories on the track.
“Leo Mussi! I think he has the most wins here as a serviceman,” said Bennett. “When I ski poorly, I feel bad for Leo. He works so hard. He’s like my second dad. Steve, Leo and I have a good relationship and we’re tight together.”
Travis Ganong and Jared Goldberg also had solid runs, finishing 15th and 19th. Nyman was 23rd and Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who was second at this race in 2020, was 27th. Erik Arvidsson was 59th.
So how are the U.S. Alpine Ski Team downhillers going to commemorate Bennett’s big win? “I think we’re going to have a couple beers tonight and celebrate,” laughed Bennett. “And I think I’m going to buy a boat.”
For the women the Downhill on the Oreiller-Killy still belongs to Sofia Goggia (ITA). The Val D'Isere Downhill victory is Sofia's fifteenth, the seventh in a row in Downhill, the fourth this season and the sixth in the 2021 calendar year. These numbers bring her closer to two skiing legends: only Annemarie Moser-Proell (8 in 1973, 7 in 1978) and Picabo Street (6 in 1995) have managed to do better.
It was the third time Goggia and Johnson have gone one-two in a race this season, finishing in the same pattern in both Lake Louise downhills. Out of Breezy’s seven podiums, she has finished behind Goggia in each, with Goggia winning all but one of those races. “I’m happy with my skiing today,” said Breezy. “Sofia I’m sure had a great race. I didn’t watch her run because I didn’t want it to get in my head, but she has been incredible.”
Goggia’s run was a wild ride down the Val d’Isere O.K. course, named after French Olympic champions Henri Oreiller and Jean-Claude Killy, and Johnson’s clean run stood in sharp contrast. She knew she had speed coming into the race, but wasn’t confident after a mediocre training run. However the mentally strong skier stuck to her plan and executed at each section to finish just .27 seconds behind Goggia.
Goggia, the reigning FIS World Cup downhill champion, said: "I’m really happy as I didn’t have the best feeling in the training run and I decided to change something on my setup. I think I didn’t ski so well, but I gave all my heart."
The Italian's victory catapulted Goggia in front of Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall standings, who skipped the downhill and plans to race Sunday’s super-G. Goggia leads with 535 points over Shiffrin’s 525 points.
Exactly one year after scoring her first career FIS World Cup podium in Val d’Isere, Breezy Johnson stepped back onto the podium at the same venue in the downhill with a second place finish.
It’s been an exceptional 365 days for Johnson, who has amassed seven podiums over the last year—all in downhill.
Johnson had been third at the French venue last season and laughed about her result. “Every year I do a deal with the devil and he says you have to pick a number,” she said. “Last year I picked three because that seemed more attainable and this year I picked two!”
Jackie Wiles, who broke her clavicle in Val d’Isere last December, also skied into the points in 26th. Keely Cashman skied out and did not finish.
In the women's snowboard parallel giant slalom in the Italian resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Ledecká dominated the rest of the field on the way to victory.The 26-year-old had finished second in Carezza on Thursday after losing out to Austrian Daniela Ulbing in the final, but was the quickest in qualifying and then knocked out home favourite Nadya Ochner in the semi-final. In the final, Russia’s Sofiya Nadyrshina was unable to finish, gifting the victory to Ledecká for her first win of the season.
