Avon, CO – Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal claimed his second downhill win in Beaver Creek on Friday, as Canada’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis finished just off the podium in fourth five-time Olympic medalist Bode Miller rallied into 13th-place, despite continuous snow and sub-zero temperatures in the Audi Birds of Prey World Cup opening.

Friday’s weather prompted the jury and the organizing committee to switch the downhill and the super G days in order to maximize the chance of all events scheduled for Beaver Creek’s race week to take place. Friday’s downhill was staged in a light flurry of snow and bitterly cold temperatures.

Svindal edged Austria’s Hannes Reichelt by 0.17 seconds and Italy’s Peter Fill, who finished 0.20 off the pace. Svindal sustained a brutal crash on the Birds of Prey course in 2007 and came back the following year to win the race. Friday’s victory was Svindal’s fourth podium finish in the Beaver Creek downhill.

“I have to admit, I like the old course more,” Svindal said of Friday’s hybrid track comprised of elements from the Raptor, the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships women’s speed track,  and Birds of Prey courses. “This course if great, but the old Birds of Prey was world class. But in the end it’s all about the win, so I can’t say that I’m too disappointed with the change.”

Osborne-Paradis came agonizingly close to his first World Cup podium in three years, just .04 seconds behind Fill. Osborne-Paradis started fifth and produced a superb run on a hill that hasn’t been kind to him in the past. He took the lead at the end of his run but was eventually pushed back into fourth place.

“Another fourth! It’s just a matter of time before I get a podium,” said Osborne-Paradis, of Vancouver, British Columbia, who was also fourth in the downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, at the end of last season. “I’m skiing better and I’m skiing faster and more confidently. It’s really just about putting it all together. My run was pretty clean. I made a mistake on the pitch and came out a little low and that probably cost me the race, but that’s racing.”

Miller, of Franconia, N.H., who is back on the World Cup tour after taking a year off to heal his knee, moved up in the results again this week to 13^th to show continual progress as he guns for a historic fifth Olympics.

“I thought I skied pretty well. I hit the line that I wanted to,” said Miller. “I made all the adjustments that I wanted to from yesterday and I took some risk in the turns. I definitely was pushing a bit and I came out on a real high traverse out by Pump House. I think I made the adjustments so even though it’s not a great result, I’m happy with it. I skied the way I needed to ski. Maybe we picked the wrong skis. Maybe it was just weather or nature. I think that’s where we lost it today.”

The U.S. Ski Team posted five athletes in the top 30, including Squaw Valley, Calif.’s Travis Ganong finishing on the heels of Miller in 15^th. Teammates Steven Nyman, Marco Sullivan and Erik Fisher went 21, 28 and 29. World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety finished 42^nd, starting late in the pack just as snow began turn heavier.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Birds of Prey – Beaver Creek, CO – Dec. 6, 2013
Men’s Downhill