{"id":792889,"date":"2019-02-09T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T01:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/like-a-fairytale-norwegian-legend-svindal-wins-world-silver-in-final-ski\/"},"modified":"2019-02-09T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T01:08:00","slug":"like-a-fairytale-norwegian-legend-svindal-wins-world-silver-in-final-ski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/like-a-fairytale-norwegian-legend-svindal-wins-world-silver-in-final-ski\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2019Like a fairytale\u2019: Norwegian legend Svindal wins world silver in final ski"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, left, silver medal, and Kjetil Jansrud of Norway, right, gold medal, celebrate after the flower ceremony after the men downhill race at the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships in Are, Sweden on Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ARE, Sweden \u2014 Aksel Lund Svindal stretched out his arms and looked to the snow-filled sky, soaking in a big skiing atmosphere one last time as thousands of flag-waving Norwegians cheered their idol at the finish area.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t matter that he\u2019d been beaten to gold \u2014 by 0.02 seconds, no less \u2014 by teammate Kjetil Jansrud in the final race of his illustrious, medal-filled, 17-year career.<\/p>\n

Silver, gold, whatever; he was simply going to savor the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-hundredths this way or two-hundredths that way,\u201d Svindal said, \u201clet\u2019s just enjoy this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Svindal, who is retiring at age 36 following persistent knee injuries, was beaming as he shared the top step of the podium with Jansrud \u2014 his close friend and training partner for two decades \u2014 after the downhill at the world championships on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Vincent Kriechmayr, the bronze medalist from Austria, was happy to leave the stage, clearly feeling like an imposter on a day which turned out pretty much perfect for the legions of Norwegians who crossed the Swedish border to see Svindal\u2019s last race. Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little poetic in that we\u2019ve shared so many hours of training together,\u201d Jansrud said. \u201cWith all the previous wins we\u2019ve had and to be able to be on the podium together one last time, it\u2019s like a fairytale.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bromance continued in the medal ceremony hours later, Jansrud proffering Svindal forward to take the acclaim of spectators in the plaza in the middle of Are.<\/p>\n

In many ways, this was a shared victory.<\/p>\n

After the start was delayed because of fog and heavy snowfall, Jansrud \u2014 racing with two broken bones in his hand after a fall in training 2 1\/2 weeks ago \u2014 went out at No. 6 and set a fierce pace on a shortened course, taking 0.65 seconds off the time of Matthias Mayer.<\/p>\n

Svindal, the two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion, came down three racers later and admitted to being nervous. He was 0.08 seconds ahead at the first checkpoint, 0.02 behind at the second, and then 0.10 adrift as he came round the final few bends of his skiing career. He soared down the hill and over the line, to almost deafening roars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAksel you are my hero,\u201d read one sign held aloft in the grandstand.<\/p>\n

Svindal playfully pointed at Jansrud, who was sitting in the leader\u2019s throne, after acknowledging the crowd. They both knew they\u2019d posted times that would be hard to beat, and that proved to be the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are really good at finding the fast lines quickly,\u201d said Bryce Bennett, the top U.S. finisher at No. 9. \u201cToday is pretty cool to be a part of, that he (Svindal) was on the podium in his last race.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Svindal just missed out on a chance to become the first man to win the downhill world title three times, he still joined Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Marc Girardelli as the only skiers to collect a medal at six world championships.<\/p>\n

Already an Olympic champion in super-G at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, this is Jansrud\u2019s first world title, adding to his two silvers at worlds. A big Liverpool soccer fan, he compared the feeling of skiing into the atmospheric finish area at Are to how he envisaged it would be like scoring a goal at Anfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one of the biggest come-to-the-finish moments of my career,\u201d Jansrud said. \u201cI got a little taste of how a soccer player feels every weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his fall in training in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jansrud was told by doctors to sit out for six weeks. He couldn\u2019t pass up the chance of racing at a worlds so close to home, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said (the injury) is not going to be good enough for Are,\u201d Jansrud said. \u201cBut somehow you get this singular focus to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was something that I missed up until now,\u201d Jansrud added about his missed opportunities in previous worlds. \u201cSo that makes it bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beat Feuz of Switzerland, the previous downhill champion, finished fourth and Mayer, the former Olympic downhill champion from Austria, came fifth. They were mere footnotes on an afternoon that was as much about Svindal as the guy who won gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so close, but this silver is like gold for us,\u201d said Anders Holm, a 39-year-old from Trondheim, Norway, who was at the race with his wife and two children.<\/p>\n

Svindal bowed to the roaring crowd during the flower ceremony and again when collecting his medal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is more than I expected, to be honest,\u201d Svindal said. \u201cI knew I was fast enough to win or take a medal, but to make it happen on the one day it counts is something else.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I wake up tomorrow morning, I\u2019ll still be happy with this decision. It\u2019s time to kick back and enjoy this from the spectators\u2019 side of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, left, silver medal, and Kjetil Jansrud of Norway, right, gold medal, celebrate after the flower ceremony after the men downhill race at the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships in Are, Sweden on Saturday. ARE, Sweden \u2014 Aksel Lund Svindal stretched out his arms and looked to the snow-filled sky, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-792889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 18:09:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}