A Tight Race Expected in Men's Downhill

(ATR) Aharrowing, high-speed, potentially dangerous Olympic downhill course would probably not be the best idea, with downhill racers from the likes of Ireland, Chile and Korea competing at the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.

Have no fear, the Olympic course is not particularly fast or overly demanding, according to numerous racers following the final downhill training run at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. Most agreed that Sunday’s signature event should shape up to be a tight race, where the winner will need to be mistake-free.

Bernhard Russi's course runs a relatively short 2.96 kilometers with four entertaining jumps. Top speeds have ranged between 100 and 112 kilometers-per-hour, relatively benign by World Cup standards.

"My impression is that it is not that difficult of a course, but it is easy to lose a lot of time and difficult to be fast," said German Thomas Dressen, the surprise winner of last month’s menacing Kitzbuehel Hahnenkamm downhill. "The air time is pretty long, but we all like that, we’re downhillers."

"All in all, the perfect run will take it," said Canadian Manny Osborne-Paradis. "It’s not about taking the most risk."

Russi – the 1972 Olympic downhill champion and chairman of the FIS Alpine Committee – has been the noted designer of Olympic downhill tracks, beginning with the 1988 Calgary Olympics.

"It was not an easy mountain – we had to search for difficulties and technical features," Russi told Around the Rings. "We are in the last training now and I saw some guys had huge problems in the upper part, they are pushing it and trying to go faster."

"The snow is firm and fast, and there are some bumps, so it’s going to be a good race on gameday," said U.S. skier Bryce Bennett.

Sochi 2014 Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer clocked a winning time of 2:36 four years ago. The fastest time on Saturday was posted by Mayer’s Austrian teammate Vincent Kriechmayr, who completed the considerably short course in 1:40.76, nearly a minute less than Sochi.

"Of course it’s not Sochi – Sochi was one of the toughest courses, but the best skiers will ski fast here and it is challenging enough," Mayer said.

Norwegian three-time Olympic medalist Kjetil Jansrud – who won the Jeongseon downhill test event two years ago – takes a different stance than his competitors.

"It is more than a strong enough Olympic downhill – it is not easy," Jansrud said. "I think it’s a spectacular downhill, a lot of terrain, a lot of big jumps, speed and tempo is high and it’s a tough downhill to ski fast in.

"In Sochi, all the downhillers were complaining it was way too difficult a downhill and more of a super-G, so I’m getting tired of people throwing their opinions around – if you want to be the best skier you have to ski everything.

"It’s a cool downhill and it’s going to look pretty good on TV."

"The slope is really challenging with big jumps and fast turns and I hope the conditions are fair for the race," said Swiss world champion Patrick Kueng.

Russi says that having racers from non-traditional ski racing nations did not influence him to design a tamer course.

"I don’t care about that – it would be wrong," Russi said. "An Olympic downhill is for the best. The downhillers have to already have a certain level in qualifications."

Eighty-one racers are in the field, a number substantially higher than typical World Cup races.

The men’s downhill is scheduled for Sunday morning at 11:00 a.m., however potentially gusty winds could postpone the race.

Written by Brian Pinelli in Jeongseon

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