Under the guidance of Travis Ganong, American skiers dominated the top positions in the first training session for the Val Gardena downhill, securing three out of the top five spots on Wednesday.Ganong finished 0.68 seconds ahead of Austrian skier Max Franz, while his teammate Bryce Bennett came in third, trailing by 0.72 seconds. Italian veteran Christof Innerhofer claimed the fourth spot, 0.73 seconds behind, followed by United States’ Thomas Biesemeyer in fifth, 0.78 seconds behind.
Having won two World Cup downhills in the past, in Santa Caterina, Italy, in November 2015, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in January 2017, Ganong missed the latter part of the previous season, including the Pyeongchang Olympics, due to a right knee injury.
Steven Nyman, a three-time winner of the Val Gardena downhill who is returning from a knee injury, finished 10th in the training session.An additional training session is scheduled for Thursday, followed by a super-G race on Friday and the downhill race on Saturday.
In other news, the International Ski Federation announced that two races called off earlier this season due to inclement weather will be rescheduled in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, next week: a giant slalom on Wednesday and a slalom on Thursday.Originally planned as the season opener in Soelden, Austria, in October, the giant slalom was moved, and the slalom, which was set for Val d’Isere, France, was also rescheduled to a later date.
