ALPINE SKIING: Franz and Jansrud take speed titles at Lake Louise

Austrian ski star Max Franz (Photo: Wikipedia)

Two veteran stars won the season openers in the FIS men’s World Cup speed events at Lake Louise in western Alberta: Max Franz and Kjetil Jansrud.

Franz, now 29, has been a consistent placer in World Cup races and a bronze medalist in the 2017 World Championships Downhill, but rarely a winner. But he whipped down the mountain as the first skier, put up a time of 1:46.18 and was never headed.

It was his eighth career World Cup medal and his second win, the prior gold coming in December of 2016.

“My skiing is solid at the moment,” he said afterwards. “I had problems with my knee in the past weeks and I wasn’t sure if it would work for the race. But after the first training I realized that I could push. Now I feel great.”

Italy’s Christof Innerhofer and Dominik Paris went 2-3, after Innerhofer won the first training run on the course in mid-week. He was happy, noting “They call me the Training World Champion, so I am very happy that I was able to lay down my best performance in the race as well. I’m more relaxed that in the past, and focus less on the result and more on the good skiing. It seems to work for me.”

On Sunday, it was the reigning World Cup Super-G champion, Kjetil Jansrud, who took the Lake Louise title for the second year in a row. It was no surprise really, since a Norwegian skier won this race for the seventh consecutive year.

For Jansrud, it was also his fourth win at one of his favorite courses, as he won both the Downhill and Super-G at Lake Louise in 2014. With his 21st career World Cup win, he’s off to a great start for a third straight World Cup Super-G title. Summaries:

FIS Alpine World Cup
Lake Louise CAN) ~ 24-25 November 2018
(Full results here)

Men’s Downhill: 1. Max Franz (AUT), 1:46.18; 2. Christof Innerhofer (ITA), 1:46.46; 3. Dominik Paris (ITA), 1:46.72; 4. Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT), 1:46.75; 5. Johan Clarey (FRA), 1:46.82. Also in the top 25: 11. Steven Nyman (USA), 1:47.39; 12. Bryce Bennett (USA), 1:47.42; … 20. Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA), 1:47.79.

Men’s Super-G: 1. Kjetil Jansrud (NOR),  1:33.52; 2. Kreichmayr (AUT), 1:33.66; 3. Mauro Caviezel (SUI), 1:33.73; 4. Hannes Reichelt (AUT), 1:33.96; 5. Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR), 1:34.09. Also in the top 25: 12. Cochran-Siegle (USA), 1:34.53; … 17. Travis Ganong (USA), 1:34.86.