River Radamus leads Americans in final Olympic downhill training run, eyes super-G start
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP photo
River Radamus placed third in the final Olympic downhill training run in Bormio, Italy on Friday. While the Edwards skier won’t compete in Saturday’s race, he said the Stelvio slope sets up well for the super-G on Feb. 11.
“Yeah, I think the hill itself is demanding enough that no matter how you set it, it will be technical, so you have to have good technical skills,” the 27-year-old stated after reaching the bottom of the 3,442-meter course in 1 minute, 57.22 seconds. “And those are the courses I think I thrive on as a GS skier.”
“That being said, the word on the street is the Italians are setting the super-G. They tend to set pretty fast, straight courses,” Radamus continued. “I could expect a lot of sections to basically mirror what the downhill is doing. So, you’re going to need a little bit of a mix.”
Canadian James Crawford (1:54.95) posted the fastest split on Friday. American Ryan Cochran-Siegle won the opening training run on Wednesday while three Italians topped the leaderboard in the second practice session on Thursday. Another Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumni, Kyle Negomir, finished as the top American (19th) that day.
With much of the field sitting out, American Sam Morse — who was 21 hundredths behind Radamus — said he felt “zero pressure” on Friday.
Support Local Journalism
“It felt much more like a training day that’s just our own team,” he added. “That was fun to ski without a whole lot of expectations.”
Morse described the course, which starts at a 63-degree angle, as “unrelenting.”
“The pitch and the angle of it, it really doesn’t let up,” he explained. “Kitzbuhel or Wengen, you have these road stretches where it really flattens out. And Bormio is just like that false flat that keeps coming at you, keeps coming at you. And then it’s long.”
Radamus agreed.
“It’s a little bit of a different beast when the snow is icier than it is today. Particularly when it’s flat light like this, then you’re constantly braced. You have no moment to be comfortable,” Radamus said. “Even if the snow is flat, you can’t see that it’s flat, so you’re braced, you’re tense and through the sections where it’s really bumpy, your legs are burning.”
Trust what you read. Stay informed with us.
Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at VailDaily.com/newsletter
One of the signature sections on the course is the high-risk San Pietro jump. Athletes will approach this feature at upwards of 80 miles an hour and launch about 40-50 meters onto a 50-degree angle landing.
“Like OG Birds of Prey,” Morse said when asked to compare the leap to the World Cup course in Beaver Creek. “They’ve been making Golden Eagle a little small the last couple years.”
The Olympic downhill begins on Saturday at 3:30 a.m. MST.
