Nothing Positive in the Air for the US men in Are
The Alpine World Ski Championships were scheduled to begin in Are Sweden this past Saturday with the Men’s Super-G, but severe weather conditions wouldn’t permit the race. It was postponed again on Sunday and Monday following a pummeling snow and severe winds that would have made the course downright dangerous.
In the months and weeks leading up to the event there would probably have been postponement due to a lack of snow, that certainly wasn’t the case this weekend.
Several hundred people worked to move an estimated twenty feet of wind driven snow from the course over the past few days to allow the world championships to finally get underway on Tuesday.
Tuesday saw both the Men’s and Womens Super-G run consectutively following the three days of wretched conditions. The weather was reportedly perfect, the US men’s skiers however were not.
The top US finisher was Steven Nyman who finished 12th, nearly a full second behind the leader. Defending Super-G champion Bode Miller(pictured below) finished a very disappointing 24th. Bode made a few mistakes at the top of the course and lost some time from heavy contact with a gate while coming to the end of the course.
Patrick Staudacher of Italy crossed the line in just over one minute and fourteen seconds bringing home the gold. He was followed by Fritz Strobl of Austria and Bruno Kernen of Switzerland respectively.
Anja Paerson had a strong run on the course wrapping up the woman’s gold for Sweden.
Provided the weather holds up the men’s and women’s super combined events will take place Thursday and Friday, followed by the downhills on the weekend so the US men will have Wednesday to prep for the events leading into the weekend and reflect on the performances of Tuesday, and hopefully be able to put up a better showing as the World Championships continue.
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