River Radamus earns first top 10 at world championships
Ski & Snowboard Club Vail athlete continues representing US Ski Team
Ski & Snowboard Club Vail’s River Radamus, born in 1998 and the youngest skier competing in the men’s parallel event, finished eighth in the world championships event Tuesday in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy — his first career top 10 at the biennial event.
France’s Mathieu Faivre won the race and Croatia’s Filip Zubcic finished second.
Radamus let out a roar behind the start gate before each run, and was clearly smiling underneath his mask when interviewed by NBC Sports after being eliminated by Zubcic in the quarterfinals and securing a top 10 finish.
The parallel pits racers on side-by-side tech courses, with a two-run format giving each skier a run down each head-to-head. With one course running faster than the other, racers tried to build their lead on the faster course, and maintain on the slower course.
“We could tell … but you got to ski both courses and take the positives of each course,” Radamus told NBC Sports when asked about the courses after being eliminated. “It effects everybody’s performance. It’s just the reality, though. You have to beat the person on the combined two courses, and whoever does that win,” adding that is is a fair race format.
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In his first matchup in the Round of 16, Radamus — of Ski & Snowboard Club Vail — took on Slovenian Zan Kranjec, one of the top GS skiers in the world. Prior to dropping in, the NBC broadcast gave a nice little shoutout about him representing the “Vail, Colorado area.”
In the quarterfinal, Radamus took on Zubcic on the parallel course. With a solid start on the arguably faster of two courses, Radamus led by 0.34, but lost the lead when the racers switched for the second of two runs, finishing eighth.
“P8 in the Parallel today!!” Radamus posted on Instagram following the race. “Weird race, but i fought like hell and i’m psyched with my first top 10 (smiley face emoji) that was fun! Team Event tomorrow! I like our chances.”
The team event is at 4 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on Wednesday on NBCSN.
In the women’s world championships parallel on Tuesday, Italy’s Marta Bassino won the gold for the host country, Austrian Katharina Liensberger won silver and France’s Tessa Worley won bronze.
American Paula Moltzan had an exciting day but just missed the podium, finishing fourth, and Nina O’Brien — one of the youngest women in the race — attacked the course but finished just outside the top 10 in 11th.
“I’m definitely bummed, I would have loved to keep skiing. It was really fun and I love this event. It’s pretty exciting. You never really know what’s going to happen when you go head-to-head,” O’Brien told the NBC broadcast after being eliminated. O’Brien lost to Swiss skier Wendy Holdener but is prepping for the team event Wednesday as well.
