River Radamus places 12th in world championship giant slalom
Odermatt claims second title at these worlds as Swiss skiers go 1-2
Gabriele Facciotti/AP photo
River Radamus was the top American in Friday’s giant slalom at the 2023 FIS World Alpine Ski Championships, placing 12th. The 25-year-old had the third-fastest second run of the day.
“Yeah it was good. I was disappointed in my first run. Didn’t feel like I pushed hard enough and then made a couple of costly mistakes,” Radamus said.
“Sat down, tried to align my focus and my goals for the second run and realized I have nothing to lose, there’s no reason to just play it safe, so I want to lay it all out there that run. Still wasn’t my best skiing ever, but I felt like the places I wanted to, I pushed as hard as I possibly could have, so proud with the effort.”
Swiss skier Marco Odermatt, who won the downhill last Sunday, took the victory, his second-career world championship gold. He was joined on the podium by his teammate Loic Meillard in second and Austrian Marco Schwarz in third.
Odermatt was the favorite coming into the event, having placed on the podium in his last 12 World Cup giant slaloms, winning four of the last six. He was also the Beijing Olympic Games champion in the event. With the win, he became the fifth man to win the downhill and the giant slalom at the same world championships (Toni Sailer, 1956 and 1958, Zeno Colo, 1950, Jean-Claude Killy, 1968 and Aksel Lunde Svindal, 2007).
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Brian McLaughlin finished 20th for the U.S. and his teammate Tommy Ford was in 16th after the first run but skied out of the course a few gates from the finish in his second run.
Alessandro Trovati/AP photo
Radamus has had a busy and successful worlds, winning a gold in the team parallel and placing fourth in the Alpine combined, 16th in the super-G and 15th in the individual parallel.
“Psyched that I came out with a little bit of a faster second run and overall psyched with the world champs experience,” he said.
Radamus will return to action when the World Cup comes to Palisades Tahoe — the 1960 Olympic venue — on Feb. 25-26 for a slalom and giant slalom.
“I’m really excited,” Radamus said about entering the domestic chapter of the calendar.
“I’ve never raced at Palisades before. I’ve been missing racing for a home crowd. Everybody’s going to be coming out and I can’t wait to go out and put on a show.”
