Last weekend’s Café de Colombia men’s World
Cup stop at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada turned out to be productive for the U.S.
Men’s Alpine Ski Team.
America’s reigning downhill king Chad Fleischer, 27, of Vail
climbed into the top 10 of Saturday’s downhill won by Hannes Trinkl of Austria.
Fleischer finished seventh, 1.26 seconds behind Trinkl's winning time.
Daron Rahlves, 26, of Truckee, Ca. followed up his 15th-place finish in
Saturday’s DH by finishing 8th in the Lake Louise super giant slalom. Rahlves has now
been the top American in both SGs this season.
The winner of Sunday’s SG was reigning world DH and SG king
Hermann Maier, 27, of Austria. And it was a record-setting triumph for the former
bricklayer who has won five of the seven World Cup races to date.
Maier’s SG win was the 11th of his career, surpassing the World
Cup record of 10 held by Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland. And it was the 23rd World Cup
triumph of Maier’s relatively short three-year career on the world’s preeminent
alpine tour.
On the women’s tour, Kristina Koznick continued to tear down her
image as a slalom specialist.
Koznick, 24, of Minnesota, a winner of two World Cup slaloms, recorded
her best-ever giant slalom finish Saturday at Serre Chevalier, France. Starting 64th, she
finished 13th in a race won by Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria.
Here are the other American placings from the recent races:
Women’s GS—Sarah Schleper 18th and Caroline Lalive 23rd.
Men’s SG—Casey Puckett 25th, Chad Fleischer 30th, Bode Miller
37th, Dane Spencer 42nd, Chris Puckett 46th, Scott Macartney 47th.
Men’s DH—Chris Puckett 19th and Macartney 48th.
The women conduct a super giant slalom today at Val d’Isere,
France, while the men resume Dec. 11-12 with the traditional downhill and giant slalom at
Val d’Isere.
