Radamus, Team USA finish sixth at worlds team event
Norway wins gold
River Radamus helped the United States to a sixth-place finish during Wednesday’s mixed team event at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Cortina, Italy.
Team USA defeated the Russian Ski Federation in the first round, before falling to eventual champion Norway during the quarterfinals.
“I thought we had a really good team,” Radamus said on the NBC Sports feed after the Americans were eliminated. “We really worked hard for this. I don’t think we quite executed to our potential today, but we got eliminated by a really good team. We’ll hold our head high and go into the next event with confidence.”
Radamus was coming off a top 10 finish in Tuesday’s men’s parallel giant slalom.
Norway defeated ancient Scandinavian rival Sweden, 3-1, in the finals, while Germany edged out the defending team Olympic and world champion, Switzerland, for the bronze.
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WHAT A TEAM ?
— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) February 17, 2021
Big smiles for this crew heading into the 1/4 Final against Norway. Let's go @rossignol_1907 /Dynastar hero squad!!
GAME FACES ON!! ??#cortina2021 pic.twitter.com/hlbh8T0ZR3
Missing a bunch of major names to injury coming into the championships, Thea Louise Stjernesund, Sebastian Foss-Solevaag and Fabian Wilkens Solheim won their runs in the final to give Norway a 3-1 victory. Kristin Lysdahl and Kristina Riis-Johannessen were also on Norway’s team.
Solevaag stopped racing midway through his heat against Kristoffer Jakobsen when the Swede made a mistake and appeared to invade his course. The jury opted for a re-run and Solevaag won.
The Americans tied the Russian Ski Federation, which is the name for the Russian team while it serves out international penalties from the 2014 Olympic doping scandal, 2-2 during the four scheduled heats. The United States won on the tiebreaker having the best combined time of their fastest male and female skier.
Ramdamus lost to Ivan Kuznetsov in his heat by 0.27 seconds.
In the matchup against Norway, the Americans trailed, 2-1, with Radamus facing Foss-Solevaag. Radamus got the win, but not by enough time as the Norwegians advanced.
Team USA still has not medaled in the team event at worlds since it became a full-fledged event at worlds in 2005 in Bormio, Italy.
SHOOT…River Radamus needed a 21.93 for the U.S. to move on. U.S. is out. Norway moves on to the 1/2 Finals. #cortina2021
— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) February 17, 2021
While winning a team medal is nice, Tuesday’s parallel event and Wednesday’s team competition are also a good way to introduce younger racers like Radamus to the worlds environment.
Radamus’ main business in Cortina is Friday’s giant slalom. He made the team by finishing in the points in 4-of-6 World Cup giant slaloms this season.
“I’ve got the GS on (Friday),” Radamus said via NBC. “It’s been an event I’ve been working on all season. I feel like I am bringing good momentum into it. I’m just going to put all my focus into it and take care of it as it comes.”
