VAL GARDENA, Italy (Dec. 20) - Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) charged through difficult visibility on the upper half of the Saslong super G and made an incredibly athletic move at the final gate to lead the U.S. Ski Team with eighth in Val Gardena. Uncharacteristically warm temperatures in the Italian valley caused the fog to blanket the upper section of the course, creating problems for numerous skiers including Ted Ligety (Park City, UT), who did not finish the race. Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal won for the third time since 2009 to further pad his Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall lead.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Bode Miller (Franconia, NH), starting second, produced his best speed finish of the season with eighth in a foggy Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super G in Val Gardena.
- Miller powered through the fog on the upper half of the course and was in potential podium position when he was nearly bounced off a roll into the final gate.
- Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) jumped from the 41st start position to finish 16th for his career-best super G result.
- Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) and Erik Fisher (Middleton, ID) also earned World Cup points with 21st and 28th respectively.
- Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal won the race for the third time since 2009 and further added to his overall World Cup points lead.
- The fog and hard-charging course set bumped the DNF rate to 12 racers, including Ted Ligety (Park City, UT).
- The race will air at 11 a.m. ET on Universal Sports Network.
- The famed Saslong Classic downhill is slated for Saturday before the tour moves to Alta Badia for a giant slalom. Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) is the defending Saslong downhill champion with Ligety also winning in Alta Badia last season.
QUOTES
Bode Miller
This course is just so easy, everyone is just pushing too hard. You're seeing guys going too straight and blowing out of the course because they're looking for speed where there isn't any. That was a bit what I did, I just got away with it.
I can ski fine in the turns. I win the turning splits for the most part. I have no question about my confidence and my speed or anything. You just have to put together. These courses have all been really easy and basic courses so far - Lake Louise, then the women's course in Beaver Creek and here. Everybody's just looking for too much. They're looking for speed where there isn't any. You have to trim line to be fast.
Travis Ganong
My super G is in a really, really good spot right now. In training it's always fast. Today, I didn't think about anything and kind of just skied. I didn't push as hard as I could have, but I made it to the bottom and it was good, solid skiing.
I know I have the speed. Now its about getting points, making it into the top 30 and hopefully getting a shot to start early in a race. I'm happy about my progress.
I hope to be on the podium tomorrow. I was fifth in the last training run and I had a big mistake. I definitely have a lot more in the tank and I'm pulling out my race skis for tomorrow. If I execute my plan and ski how I know I can, I can for sure be on the podium.
Sasha Rearick, men's alpine Head Coach
With Bode running two on that course, and because you have to go as hard as possible and they only had four forerunners, we had to adjust course report as bib one was going down. And of course for the very last little bit Bode was in the gate so we couldn’t give him that last part. But Bode is building. He’s skiing well. I was really stoked to see him skiing those conditions with bad visibility and at the same time put it down the hill with confidence.
Travis did a good job with the start number he had today. He went from having not scored any World Cup points in super G last season to coming down with a 16th place with good skiing from top to bottom.
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