Dominik Paris claims 21st World Cup win in Kvitfjell downhill as Kjetil Jansrud bows out
Italian speed specialist Paris scorched home by over half a second from Aleksander Aamodt Kilde whose fellow Attacking Viking said goodbye on home snow.
Alpine Skiing
Dominik Paris flew to victory in the second Alpine Ski World Cup downhill of the weekend at Kvitfjell on Saturday (5 March).
The 32-year-old Italian put down a blazing run of 1:43.92 to win by 0.55 seconds from home favourite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
Fresh from tying for first place with Cam Alexander on Friday, Swiss Niels Hintermann shared the third spot on the podium with compatriot and reigning Olympic champion Beat Feuz with the pair 0.81 behind Paris.
American skier Ryan Cochrane-Siegle was fifth (+1.06) with Vincent Kriechmayr (+1.20) in sixth.
Alexander could only manage 16th this time, but his Canadian teammate Jeffrey Read did take seventh wearing start bib number 42.
For Merano native Paris, this was a 21st World Cup triumph and his third since rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and fracturing his right knee in January 2020.
The 2019 Super-G world champion was sixth in the Beijing 2022 downhill and is now up to fourth in the World Cup downhill season standings.
After 10th on Friday, he became the first man to win three Kvitfjell downhills.
"I didn't know that!" he laughingly replied after being informed of his achievement, "It's nice. I'm just super happy that I skied really fast today.
"After yesterday it was a very good run, smoother and I took the right line today. And at the end I'm very very happy to stay in front."
Kilde stretches lead at the top of downhill standings, Odermatt leads overall
Second place was a big result for Kilde who increased his downhill lead from three to 23 points over Feuz.
Before the final downhill in Courchevel in 11 days, Kilde has 570 points to Feuz's 547 with Matthias Mayer third (486) and Paris fourth (482).
Marco Odermatt continues to pick up points and finished 13th today. He dropped to fifth, behind Paris, in the downhill standings but retains a sizeable lead in the overall World Cup series.
The overall standings look like this right now:
- Marco Odermatt 1236
- Aleksander Aamodt Kilde 950
- Matthias Mayer 776
- Beat Feuz 689
- Henrik Kristoffersen 659
Kjetil Jansrud retires after home farewell
Kjetil Jansrud called time on his glittering career after finishing outside the top 30.
The 36-year-old grew up in Kvitfjell, starting his ski adventure on the Peer Gynt alpine trail nearly three decades ago.
He won five Olympic medals including Super-G gold at Sochi 2014 and beat teammate Aksel Lund Svindal to the downhill world title in 2019.
Jansrud amassed no fewer than 55 World Cup podiums including 23 wins starting with his first in the Kvitfjell Super-G in 2012.
One of the famed 'Attacking Vikings', Jansrud damaged knee ligaments in December which looked to have ruled him out of Beijing 2022.
Incredibly, he made it to the start line but could only finish 23rd in the Super-G.
Last month, he announced that this race would be his last and he was roared down the course by an adoring home crowd.
"I'm really gonna enjoy this... I might be a bit emotional, particularly when I get to the finish," he said before the race.
When he completed his final race Jansrud got down on his knees and kissed the snow.
Asked to choose a single moment from a sparkling career he admitted, "It's almost impossible, but I'm lucky to have a lot to pick from," before picking that first World Cup win at Kvitfjell.
"I have competitors but I've also made friends from all over the world, so I'm going to miss everyone."
So what's the plan now?
"Now I'm a dad and I have a family and I'm going to take care of them and there's gonna be some beauty in waking up on Saturday and, instead of going and skiing as fast as I can, I'm going to teach (daughter) Froya to ski as fast as she can."