{"id":2451864,"date":"2019-12-04T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T05:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/americans-have-high-hopes-for-birds-of-prey-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2019-12-04T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T05:08:00","slug":"americans-have-high-hopes-for-birds-of-prey-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/americans-have-high-hopes-for-birds-of-prey-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans have high hopes for Birds of Prey World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
American Travis Ganong flies over Red Tail during the downhill training for the Xfinity Birds of Prey Audi FIS Ski World Cup on Wednesday in Beaver Creek. Ganong feels he’s back to 100 percent after tearing his ACL in Bormio, Italy, in December 2017.<\/strong>
Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BEAVER CREEK \u2014 Who was the last American to win at Beaver Creek?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Ted Ligety because Mikaela Shiffrin won here at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in slalom the day after Ted won giant slalom.<\/p>\n

Technicalities aside, it\u2019s been a while for the Americans on their home snow, but the red, white and blue hopes to change things at the 2019 Xfinity Birds of Prey FIS World Cup.<\/p>\n

Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vermont) did the honors with the fastest time in downhill training Wednesday with a time of 1 minute, 41.37 seconds, ahead of Norway\u2019s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (1:41.61) and Austria\u2019s Matthias Mayer (1:41.67).<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201cwinning\u201d training only means something if things go well on race day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised. I had fast training runs in Lake Louise, (Alberta), too, and I don\u2019t think my results come out well,\u201d Cochran-Siegle said. \u201cToday, I was just trying to take the run kinda easy. By the time you get to The Brink, it doesn\u2019t turn out that way \u2014 you have to go full send. I was just trying to stay ahead of it and flow with the terrain. \u2026 I think I skied well today. That\u2019s about it. Race day is a totally different ball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the difference is that the U.S. Men\u2019s Ski Team starts the ball game healthy, and it hopes the results will follow.<\/p>\n

Under the knife<\/p>\n

Particularly on the speed side of the team, the Americans were a M.A.S.H. unit last season. Travis Ganong (Lake Tahoe, California) did his ACL in Bormio, Italy, in December 2017.<\/p>\n

A two-time World Cup downhill winner and a silver-medalist in the discipline at the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships here, Ganong just wasn\u2019t right during the 2018-19 season. Though he was sixth at Val Gardena, Italy and 10th in Soldeu, Andorra, at the World Cup finals, last season was a forgettable campaign for the 31-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cComparing where I was last year to this year is totally different,\u201d Ganong said. \u201cLast year, I had to trick myself into thinking I was OK and I was struggling all winter with my knee. This year is a totally different story. It\u2019s feeling good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ganong enters Birds of Prey having tied for 10th in the Lake Louise downhill and taking 12th in the super-G. Meanwhile, were surgeries like frequent-flyer miles, Steven Nyman (three World Cup downhill wins, all in Val Gardena) would be in the front of the plane wherever he goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, ACL, MCL, PCL,\u201d Nyman said. \u201cLast year was ACL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throw in Jared Goldberg and Tommy Biesemeyer, who both had Achilles tendon injuries, and it\u2019s not really a surprise why the team has been struggling.<\/p>\n

Back to Nyman (Sundance, Utah), he feels good and has a wealth of experience from which to draw here at Beaver Creek \u2014 third in 2006; second in 2007; third in 2014 and fourth in the 2015 worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done well here and have three podiums, but I haven\u2019t won here,\u201d Nyman, 37, said. \u201cThat\u2019s highly motivating to me, that energy, that desire to push for more. That heightened focus, that\u2019s a place when I tend to switch things on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fun hill. I see it. I understand it. It\u2019s just a joy to ski. It\u2019s one of the most well-rounded downhills on tour. It has the steeps. It has the flats. It has the terrain, big terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nyman started this speed season tied for 10th with Ganong in last weekend\u2019s downhill.<\/p>\n

Bennett gaining ground<\/p>\n

Knock wood, for some reason, Bryce Bennett (Lake Tahoe, like Ganong) didn\u2019t break his body. Instead, he finished seventh in the downhill points.<\/p>\n

In the process, he had top 10 finishes here, Val Gardena, Bormio, and in Wengen, Switzerland. Those are some resume builders.<\/p>\n

With those performances, he\u2019s making the transition from prospect to mainstay, and that takes some adjustment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m living that right now,\u201d Bennett said with a laugh. \u201cIt all kind of changes. Before, you\u2019re just skiing. There\u2019s no external worries and then you start doing well and there\u2019s a lot of media requests, some other obligations you don\u2019t really think of. Not that it detracts, it\u2019s part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Travis Ganong flies over Red Tail during the downhill training for the Xfinity Birds of Prey Audi FIS Ski World Cup on Wednesday in Beaver Creek. Ganong feels he’s back to 100 percent after tearing his ACL in Bormio, Italy, in December 2017.Chris Dillmann | cdillmann@vaildaily.com BEAVER CREEK \u2014 Who was the last American […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 03:49:19","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}