Zagreb, Croatia – U.S. women scored a World Cup victory when Mikaela Shiffrin won Sunday’s slalom in Croatia. Before the men could take their turn in the gates in Zagreb on Tuesday night, however, two of their development team members perished in an avalanche on Monday in Soelden, Austria, the team’s European training base.
Tuesday was a tough evening for the U.S. Ski Team men. Sporting black arm bands and memorial stickers on their helmets, none of the seven entered in the night slalom finished the race. Only two — Park City, Utah’s Ted Ligety, and David Chodounsky, of Crested Butte, Colo. — even qualified for a second run.
The injected hill in Zagreb was icy and unforgiving, with conditions compounded by fog and low visibility. But with 10,000 people cheering them into the finish, the atmosphere was electric. Running bullet, Marcel Hirscher from Austria threw down a lightning fast first run that no one could catch—finishing .81 seconds ahead of Felix Neureuther of Germany overall. Sebastian-Foss Solevaag of Norway was in third.
Chodounsky—wearing bib 26—surprised the field when he finished third. However, a few bobbles caught him off balance in the second run and he skied out of the course. Ligety finished 13th first run, but also DNF’ed.
Seven American racers competed, with each skier wearing a black arm band and tape on their helmets to mourn Ronnie Berlack and Bryce Astle, the two U.S. Ski Team prospects killed in the Austrian avalanche. Prior to the race, the race organizers held a moment of silence.
“It was an unbelievable day today with everything that happened—the way the guys are skiing, they way they’re charging, I’m just so proud of the staff and the athletes,” said U.S. Ski Team Patrick Riml, who himself hails from Soelden. “It’s not the result or the outcome we were hoping for, but it’s impressive how they worked through the whole thing. Daver (Chodounsky), the young guys, AJ (Ginnis), Michael (Ankeny), Tim (Kelley). It’s heartbreaking, but they did a great job.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Zagreb, Croatia – Jan. 6, 2015
Men’s Slalom (night)
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HIRSCHER Marcel | AUT | 1:55.96 |
| 2 | NEUREUTHER Felix | GER | 1:56.77 |
| 3 | SOLEVAAG Sebastian-Foss | NOR | 1:57.00 |
| 4 | HARGIN Mattias | SWE | 1:57.35 |
| 5 | KHOROSHILOV Alexander | RUS | 1:57.42 |
| 6 | BAECK Axel | SWE | 1:57.55 |
| 7 | GROSS Stefano | ITA | 1:57.63 |
| 8 | DOPFER Fritz | GER | 1:57.64 |
| 9 | GRANGE Jean-Baptiste | FRA | 1:57.97 |
| 10 | YULE Daniel | SUI | 1:58.20 |