Sochi, Russia – With Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the crowd, Franconia, N.H.’s Bode Miller rode a razor sharp line to finish fourth by a mere two hundredths of a second in Saturday’s Audi FIS Alpine World Cup test of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games downhill. Swiss ski racer Beat Feuz won on his 25th birthday to move within 50 points of World Cup overall leader Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, and Canadian Ben Thomsen was second for the first World Cup podium finish of his career. Adrien Theaux of France was third.

Thomsen, 24, of Invermere, British Columbia, has been on a hot streak lately, and on Saturday he produced a blazing run down the icy and bumpy track in Rosa Khutor to confirm his status as one of the World Cup circuit’s rising stars.  Starting 27^th, Thomsen is now the newest member of the Canadian Cowboys – a title bestowed on male Canadian alpine skiers who earn top three results in World Cup, world championship or Olympic races.

“It’s a little bit overwhelming right now. It’s awesome,” said Thomsen, who has career-best results in three straight downhills after finishing 11^th and then fifth at consecutive races in Chamonix, France, last weekend.  “When I crossed the finish line nobody raised their hands so I thought, ‘Oh no, I must have had a bad run.’ But then I saw my name come up. I’m still in shock.”

Thomsen, who has a reputation for thriving on difficult courses, seemed to relish battling his way down a course that was rock-hard and gnarly, with tight turns at the top and huge jumps.

“It was really icy at the top. Some of the iciest conditions I’ve seen,” Thomsen said. “You could grab your hockey skates and go right down with the puck.”

“Yesterday Benny (Thomsen) struggled quite a bit on the top,” said Johno McBride, Canada’s head speed coach. “I told him if he was somewhat competitive on the top he could be a contender. He backed off to make a gate at the top and he skied well from the mid section down to the finish.”

Miller carried the green leader light through the first two timing intervals before his skis hooked up on the middle of the course, forcing him to dump speed coming into the jump section.

It was the first time the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup had ever been staged in Russia. Saturday’s race was used as a test event for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, and Miller praised the venue as one of the best alpine competition slopes he’s ever seen.

“The technical tough part is on the top, it’s the first minute or so. We’ve been struggling on the setup trying to figure out what to do on these bumps and firm ice. Those kind of spots are where I’m able to put time on guys,” Miller explained. “The setup of this hill is good, the jumps are awesome – they’re huge as you can see, but they have good landings and straight take-offs, so it sets up for a great natural downhill. But they do have to figure out how much risk they’re willing to take with the course set.

“The athletes will ski whatever,” he continued. “The Olympic downhill has to be the real thing and especially when you have such a great venue as this, it would be awesome to showcase it, but this is way too turny for a downhill. It is tough when they’ve never run a race before, but I’m sure they’re learning as much as we are and I’m sure they’ll figure out how to use this terrain and make something special.

“A downhill should be a challenge, it should be dangerous and it should have risk. Part of that comes from carrying speed off of terrain and into big turns. If it doesn’t challenge athletes, then you won’t ever see their best. The Olympics and World Cup deserves to provide an opportunity for athletes to show their best. It’s got to be tough,” Miller concluded.

“This is the cooleset hill I’ve ever seen for ski racing – downhill, super G – it doesn’t matter,” added Travis Ganong, of Truckee, Calif., who finished just out of the points on Saturday in 31st. “This hill is just awesome top-to-bottom. It’s has really steep technical sections, really cool rolls and terrain with bank turns and then big jumps and the mountains around here are georgous. The set can probably use some change before the Olympics and they’ll work on that in the next couple of years, but in general this is a great hill.”

Park City, Utah’s Ted Ligety opted to skip Saturday’s race in order to rest for Sunday’s super combined, the final such race of this World Cup season.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Sochi, Russia – Feb. 11, 2012
Men’s Downhill