Val Gardena, Italy – Coming off a career-best super G result at Beaver Creek, Lake Placid, N.Y.’s Andrew Weibrecht was once again the top American, finishing fifth, at the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super G on Friday in Val Gardena.

The winning ways of Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal continued as the Attacking Viking captured the Val Gardena super G for the fourth time in his career and fourth victory this season. Following Svindal in second and third, respectively, were two of his countrymen, Kjetil Jansrud and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, marking the third ever Norwegian World Cup podium sweep and first ever in super G. Austria’s Matthias Meyer was fourth.

“Skiing with my teammates has been really good for me, I’ve learned a lot training with them,” said a happy Kilde after the race.  “I feel really proud to be on the podium with them and to share my first-ever podium with the two best skiers in the world.”

Kilde led the field for a good portion of the race as he put down the fastest time wearing Bib #4. It took another 16 skiers, when Svindal had an amazing run, for Kilde to be knocked out of the lead. One skier after Svindal, Jansrud snuck into second place.

“I was happy Alex skied really well and I knew it would be hard to beat him, but the sweep is really cool. It’s a perfect day for Norway,” Svindal said. “We work hard as a team and we had a lot of days on the snow before the season and we do a lot together. Again, it’s just a perfect day for our team.”

For Svindal, it is clear that his Achilles injury, which sidelined him for nearly the entire last season is a thing of the past as this was already his second super G win of the season. It was Jansrud’s second podium of the season, and his first of the season in super G.

“You can never be unhappy with second place, hats off to Aksel for his strong skiing, he’s pretty hard to beat right now,” Jansrud said. “For Norway it is an amazing day, I’m really happy to see Alex take the step up, he’s a very good skier and it’s great to see him on the podium.”

Carrying serious speed from the top of the course, Weibrecht caught air over a blind roll, pushing him well wide of his intended line on the critical steep-to-flat section of the trail. However, by pushing it on the rest of the course he managed to claw back much of his lost time, leaving those watching to wonder what might have been.

“Pretty big mistake at the top, I was quite a bit out. I just charged pretty hard the rest of the way,” Weibrecht said. “I knew that I needed to make time up. I skied really well the rest of the trip down. It’s just when you make a mistake like that, it kind of takes you out of contention. I was disappointed, but it was still good skiing and it’s a good continuation of what I started in North America. For me to have a decent result here says a lot about where my skiing is at right now.”

Three other Americans scored World Cup points with Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, Calif.) in 19^th, Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) in 21^st, and Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) in 28^th.

Up next for the U.S. men is Saturday’s downhill, where Nyman is looking for his fourth win on the Val Gardena Saslong, following two strong training runs – third in downhill training 1 and fourth in downhill training 2.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Val Gardena, Italy – Dec. 18, 2015
Men’s Super G