River Radamus ready to roll at 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
Gabriele Facciotti/AP photo
River Radamus considers himself a “big-event skier.” He also knows he’s not the first.
“I sort of think that American ski racers are big-event ski racers,” Radamus said during a press conference in Saalbach, Austria, on Wednesday. “We always show up at the big ones and I think we take pride with always being threats at these big events.”
“He’s known to show up when the pressure is on,” added teammate Isaiah Nelson. “It’s cool to watch and it’s inspiring to see.”
Radamus’ global championship record speaks for itself. The Edwards skier finished the 2022 Olympic year ranked 57th in the overall cup standings but finished fourth in the giant slalom in Beijing. He showed up in Courchevel in 2023, too, taking fourth in the Alpine Combined and winning gold in the team parallel.
But coming off his best season in 2024 — where he secured his first-career World Cup podium en route to finishing 11th in the GS cup standings and 32nd in the overall — Radamus has felt “unsatisfied” with 2025.
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“I feel like the skiing has been up and down and just hasn’t quite connected in the way I want it to,” he said.
Radamus inspired the home crowd when he finished seventh and eighth at Beaver Creek in December. But he only has one top-10 result since and has struggled to find his groove in the super-G like he did at Birds of Prey. In the first competition at worlds, however, he was his usual clutch self, taking down Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath in a second-round matchup that was a rematch of the Courchevel final. But the Americans finished in the dreaded fourth-place position.
“Especially at a world championship, it’s sort of medals or bust,” Radamus said on Wednesday. “I know it from personal experience, but there’s nothing that feels worse than fourth at a big event.”
Radamus rose to the occasion in the world championship super-G, finishing 19th. The 27-year-old will contest his specialty, the giant slalom, on Friday and also plans to compete in the slalom on Sunday. Fellow former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail skier Bridger Gile will join him in the former event.
The Aspen-born skier competed in the World Cup giant slaloms in Soelden, Beaver Creek, Val d’Isere, Alta Badia and Adelboden, but either didn’t qualify or didn’t finish his first run at all of them. He’s found success on the European Cup, however, placing sixth in Turnau on Jan. 25. Gile said he’s following Radamus’ example in embracing the elevated stakes inherent to the world championships.
“In training, sometimes we’ll put money down, and whenever that happens, River always seems to ski way faster,” Gile said. “So, we’ve definitely learned how to dial it up when the pressure gets put on. So, hopefully we can show that.”
Nelson, who was also on the fourth-place team parallel squad and is slated to contest the GS as well, is hoping to capitalize on the fact that world championship fields are often shallower than World Cup ones.
“There’s a couple less skiers in front of us,” he said. “With all the energy, I hope we can feed off of it the same way River does.”
Radamus said his mindset will be what it’s always been.
“I want to put forward my best skiing possible, leave it all out there and be proud of the effort regardless,” he said. “I don’t want to get to the finish and know that I could have given anything more. … I feel confident in where we are and I think all of us are going to be pushing hard for medals this week.”
