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Leever conquers last two gates, earns first WC points

He may not have stuck the landing

Sports |

Chris Freud

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Alex Lever, right, is officially on the World Cup table after recording his first points in Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday. (Chris Cohen Images
Special to the Daily)

Don’t try this at home, kids.

Austria’s Marco Schwarz emerged the winner from Tuesday’s World Cup night slalom in Schladming, Austria. France’s Clement Noel and Alexis Pinturault rounded out the podium.

But the real fight was at the back of the flip, where youngsters have horribly high bib numbers and are trying to charge into the points.

Thus, we present you bib No. 66, aka Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s Alex Leever, who earned his first World Cup points of his career by finishing 24th. Heck making the second run from No. 66 on a cold, snowy, miserable night is an accomplishment, That, normally, would be enough to get you into the newspaper.

But it was how Leever did it.

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Seemingly,on his way to finishing his second run, Lever nearly bonked on the second-to-last gate, appearing to lose his way and those precious points. Leever fell going around the second -to-last gate. landed on his derriere across the finish line and, somehow in the process, managed to clear the final gate.

Prone in the snow on skier’s left, Lever lifted his upper body and fist in triumph after finishing and was heard on the broadcast, saying “I made it.” We’re pretty sure the East German judge only gave him a score of 2.4.

The jury had to have reviewed it. Official results are out from FIS. He did get around the gates in question. These are his first points, all wonderful seven of them.

Alex Leever is official. He earned his first seven World Cup points with a 24th-place finish during Tuesday. (Screen grab)

Well done. Just please don’t try that again in your next race.

At 25, this was only Lever’s third start on the white circus. His two previous starts had resulted in DNFs in Flachau, Austria, last weekend.

Ford out for year

It’s not a huge surprise but the U.S. Ski Team announced on Tuesday that Tommy Ford will be out for the season after having surgery last week at some place called the Steadman Philippon Research Institute.

Yes, we’ve heard of it.

Ford, who won the 2019 Birds of Prey giant slalom, had a nasty crash in Adelboden, Switzerland, on Jan. 10. He will rehab in Bend, Oregon.

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