. world ski news : Are 2007: Dawnhill - 11 February 2007 - 21:51
Are: Svindal wins World Championships downhill
By Sam Flickinger and Whitney Childers
Sunday, 11 February 2007
skiracing.com
ARE, Sweden — Despite falling short of a medal in either the super G or the super combined, Aksel Lund Svindal knew he had what it took to conquer the Olympia downhill course in Are.
The big Norwegian not only conquered the course, he made history in the process, becoming the first racer from Norway to win a downhill gold medal at the World Championships, topping Canada's Jan Hudec and the ageless Patrik Jaerbyn of Sweden.
Svindal clocked a time of 1 minute, 44.68 seconds, continually building speed throughout a course made treacherous by often-poor visibility. Hudec, in his first full season on the World Cup and starting No. 2 in the field, held the lead for more than 20 racers and finished second in 1:45.40, while the 37-year-old Jaerbyn became the oldest skier ever to medal in a World Championships and Sweden's first-ever top-three finisher in downhill at worlds. Jaerbyn's teammate, Anja Paerson, later made it two for Sweden by winning the women's downhill and grabbing her third gold at this event.
"I think to win the gold medal at the World Championships you have to basically beat the rest of the guys in the world, no matter if that’s downhill, super G or GS. That’s a big achievement," said Svindal, who won the downhill at World Cup Finals last season on the same Are course.
"The fact that no other Norwegian has won the downhill before, I think that’s just bad luck actually. Because look at how many medals they’ve gotten."
No American or Austrian racers broke into the top five. Bode Miller, the defending downhill world champion, finished seventh, and Mario Scheiber led the Austrians in eighth.
Miller, skiing six spots after Svindal took the lead, was neck-and-neck with the smooth-skiing Norwegian on the top, taking a 0.01 second lead into the technical middle section, which was intermittently bathed in fog and flat light throughout the race. Miller said the light was too flat in the middle section to ski aggressively and he began losing time.
At one point Miller got way in the back seat and couldn't maintain a clean line. Exiting the middle he was 0.64 back of Svindal and he ended the race more than a second behind.
"Today if you didn’t have a pretty clear course in the middle section, you can’t ski aggressively down that pitch. Literally, when I went you couldn’t see," Miller said. "It was unbelievable how flat the light was.
"I skied well on the parts where I could ski hard. I'm not too disappointed because it was really all I could do. I think if anybody ran with the conditions I had, they would have had a hard time beating me."
Steven Nyman was the next-best U.S. finisher in 21st, Marco Sullivan was 28th, Scott Macartney 30th and T.J. Lanning 40th.
"I was hoping I could get an early present because my birthday is [Monday]," Nyman said. "I got an early Christmas present at Gardena. The birthday present didn’t work out."
Nyman made a heroic recovery midway through the course, regaining his balance after losing his right edge and falling on his left hip approaching a hard right turn.
"I don’t know [how it happened]. Somehow I just do it," Nyman said of the recovery. "My back has been messed up the past few days. I don’t know if that really helped it. I’m just happy I didn’t t-bone into the fence. I’m fine.
"I was just charging for it … bummer.
Nyman added that it was cool to see Svindal destroy everyone in the field Sunday.
"We train together and he's my same age. So it was really great to see him do so well."
Are: Paerson wins again; Kildow 2nd in DH
By Whitney Childers and Sam Flickinger
Sunday, 11 February 2007
ARE, Sweden — Anja Paerson can’t lose.
The Swedish ski racing queen sealed her third straight gold at the World Championships Sunday by besting a field of strong speedsters in the women’s downhill. She 25-year-old also became the first skier ever to earn medals in all five disciplines at the World Championships.
"At the moment it’s just too much to take in," Paerson said. "Crossing the finish line today I didn’t know what to feel. It’s been a dream to win the downhill at World Championships at home, and to achieve it I really didn’t think I could do it. It really was amazing."
American Lindsey Kildow finished less than half-second behind Paerson to nab the silver, her second one of the championships. She clocked 1 minute, 27.29 seconds to Paerson’s 1:26.89.
Kildow lost time on the top section, nearly skiing off the course during a hard left-hand turn. She ended up with the 26th-fastest time through the top but gained time on the field the rest of the way down the tight and technical WM Strecke course.
"I knew I had such a big mistake at the top, and I knew I had to fight all the way to the finish if I was going to get a medal today," Kildow said. "I just didn’t give up and I kept going, went as straight as I could and made up a lot of time. I'm just really happy to get a medal today. Normally, with that mistake that wouldn’t happen."
Austrian Nicole Hosp won the bronze, finishing in 1:27.37 for her first top-three career finish in the downhill.
"It was very tough. When I was standing in the finish and waiting, [the following racers] are the greatest skiers in downhill at the moment," Hosp said. "I was very nervous. It was tough. ... I just tied to ski good today. I knew I could do a good downhill on this slope."
Three other American women finished in the top 20: Julia Mancuso, silver medalist behind Paerson in the super combined, was 10th at 1:28.09. Kirsten Clark finished 15th (1:28.40) and youngster Stacey Cook 16th (1:28.55).
Mancuso said "her game wasn't all together" Sunday. "I felt ready in the gate, but everything, one after the other, kept going wrong," she said.
Mancuso said the snow on the course was good but the flat light made it tough to see all the bumps. She also knew it would take a lot of aggressive skiing to top the super-confident Paerson.
"I knew to beat Anja I was going to have to go for something special, and I wasn’t really looking at just the podium so I charged and it didn’t really work out for me," she said.
Paerson had a near-perfect run on a course with flat light and some soft snow in certain areas. Kildow made a mistake early on in the race and at one point was almost a second off Paerson’s pace. She made up the time with solid turns and a tight tuck the rest of the race, making up almost half a second to finish with the silver.
The next women's race is Tuesday with the final run of giant slalom under the lights. The U.S. foursome will be Mancuso, Jessica Kelley, Resi Stiegler and Libby Ludlow.