The 57th Saslong Classic in Val Gardena/Gröden, one of the iconic Men's World Cup Downhill races, takes place on the last weekend before Christmas.
Val Gardena / Groeden (ITA)
December 21st Downhill / Men 11:45 CET
Training sessions have been scheduled for Tuesday, 17th, Wednesday, 18th, and Thursday 19th December.
The speed season kicked off at the Birds of Prey racetrack with a big surprise in store. Justin Murisier secured his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory by winning the World Cup Downhill at Beaver Creek. Starting with bib number 3, Murisier skied a solid run from top to bottom with hardly any mistakes. The 32-year-old Swiss skier previously achieved his only podium finish in the Giant Slalom in Alta Badia in 2020. His best Downhill result was 4th place in Bormio last season.
Marco Odermatt finished in second place in the first Downhill of the season held in Beaver Creek, just 0.20 seconds behind his teammate Justin Murisier.
Odermatt won the Men’s Downhill Crystal Globe last season. It's Odermatt’s first Downhill Globe. The Swiss ski Ace also won the Super-G title and secured the speed double. The last Swiss skier to win the Downhill Crystal Globe was Beat Feuz, who won four between 2017-2018 and 2020-2021.
The reigning world champion in the Men's Downhill added the World Cup title to his Overall, Super-G, and Giant Slalom Globes. The last man to win at least four World Cup Crystal Globes in a single season was Hermann Maier in 1999-2000 and 2001-2001 (Overall, Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Super-G in both seasons).
The only Swiss man to win at least four World Cup classifications in a single season was Pirmin Zurbriggen in 1986-1987. He won the Overall, Combination, Super-G, Downhill, and Giant Slalom titles.
Marco Odermatt finished on the podium in six of the eight Downhill events last season including a double win in Wengen. After achieving his first victory on the discipline in the first Downhill held in the Swiss ski resort Marco Odermatt took the double win in the Lauberhorn. His worst results were two seventh places in Val Gardena and Kvitfjell Downhills.
He has never won in Val Gardena. He finished second in the Downhill in December 2022.
Miha Hrobat completed the podium in third place in Beaver Creek. It was the first podium in the World Cup for the Slovenian, whose best result to date had been a seventh place in the Kitzbühel downhill in 2023.
Cyprien Sarrazin finished in a disappointing ninth position in the first Downhill of the season in Beaver Creek.
Last season Sarrazin took the double Downhill win in the Streif in Kitzbühel. He finished on the podium in his last five World Cup Downhill starts (1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 1st).
Sarrazin also won the Downhill in The Stelvio in Bormio and finished in second place in the two Downhills held in Wengen. He also won the Super-G in Wengen. Before Bormio, his two previous podium finishes were a victory in the Parallel Slalom in Alta Badia in 2016, and a second place in the Alta Badia Giant Slalom in 2019.
Before the start of last season, Sarrazin's best-ever World Cup Downhill result was sixth in Val Gardena in 2022.
Cyprien Sarrazin was the first French skier to win a Men's Downhill World Cup race since Adrien Théaux won in Santa Caterina on December 29, 2015.
He became the first Frenchman to win multiple Downhill World Cup races in a single season since Antoine Dénériaz won two in 2002-2003.
Vincent Kriechmayr finished in fifth place in Beaver Creek. Kriechmayr recorded nine of his 18 World Cup wins in Downhill. His best positions last season were second place in Kvitfjell and two 5th place in Bormio and Wengen. Kriechmayr recorded World Cup Downhill podium finishes in each of the previous seven seasons (2017-2018 to 2023-2024).
Ahead of the speed events in Val Gardena, Kriechmayer had won nine Super-G and nine Downhill World Cup events. The only Men to have won at least 10 World Cup events in both Super-G and Downhill are Pirmin Zurbriggen (10 SG, 10 DH), Hermann Maier (24 SG, 15 DH) and Aksel Lund Svindal (17 SG, 14 DH).
Kriechmayr finished in fourth place on the Downhill standings last season. He has won all the European Downhill Classics -Val Gardena-Gröden, Bormio, Wengen (twice), and Kitzbühel.
Last season Dominik Paris won the second Downhill held in Val Gardena-Gröden. It was the 22nd career World Cup victory for the 34-year-old Italian skier. It was the first victory for Paris in Val Gardena Gröden.
Paris finished in third place on the Downhill standings last season. It was the sixth time he finished in third place in the downhill rankings for Paris. His best result was second in the 2018-2019 winter season.
With 18 victories in Downhill, Dominik Paris is the active male skier who won the most Downhill events in the World Cup. Only Franz Klammer (25), Peter Müller (19), and Stephan Eberharter (18) have won as many World Cup Downhill events among Men as Paris.
Bryce Bennett finished in fifth place on the Downhill standings last season. He won the first Downhill race in Val Gardena-Gröden and placed third in the second race. Bennett has achieved his best results in the Dolomites ski resort: two victories, one-third place, and two-fourth place.
With two victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup, Bryce Bennett could tie Bill Johnson (3) and Steven Nyman (3) for third place on the list of USA Men's Downhill World Cup winners. Daron Rahlves (9) and Bode Miller (8) are first and second.
In the 2023-2024 winter season, the Austrian Ski Team achieved only one podium place (Vincent Kriechmayr second in Kvitfjell), and in the Downhill standings only Kriechmayr (4th) made it into the Top-10 (Stefan Babinsky was 15th). The 33-year-old is the only skier in the team to have ever won a World Cup Downhill. All these facts make the Austria Ski Downhill Team the weakest Downhill team in almost four decades. You have to look back to the 1987-1988 winter season to find similarly dismal performances by the Austrian Downhill skiers.
Update 12.17.2024: Italian Mattia Casse set the fastest time in the first Downhill training in Val Gardena on December 17. Marco Odermatt finished in second place 0.44 seconds behind. Third place went to Romed Baumann 0.57 seconds off the pace.
The 34-year-old Italian took one of his three Alpine Ski World Cup podiums in Val Gardena. On 17 December 2022, Casse finished third in the Downhill in Val Gardena. Last season he finished in seventh place.
In 2023 Romed Baumann put in an impressive run on the Àliga track in Soldeu, Andorra, to claim his first and last Downhill podium since 2015.
Update 12.18.2024: James Crawford set the fastest time in the second Downhill training in the Saslong. Italian Mattia Casse finished in second place 0.08 seconds behind. Third place went to Stefan Rogentin 0.11 seconds behind the Canadian.
James Crawford won the Men's Super-G, gold medal in Courchevel-Meribel 2023. He claimed his first-ever World Championship medal, -he finished 4th in the Alpine Combined in Cortina 2021-, but also the first race of his career in a major event. He was the second Canadian to win a World Championship gold in this discipline after Erik Guay in St. Moritz in 2017.
He has finished on the podium of the World Cup four times, three of them in the Downhill.
Stefan Rogentin won the last Super-G of the 2023-2024 winter season in Saalbach. It was Rogentin's first victory in his 100th Alpine Ski World Cup start. His previous best result was second place in Wengen on 13 January 2023.
Comments