Cook Leads U.S. in Raptor Debut

BEAVER CREEK, CO (Nov. 29) – The 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships women’s downhill successfully hosted its first World Cup Friday to open the Nature Valley Raptor World Cup week. Veteran Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) earned the top spot for the U.S. Ski Team, finishing 19th on a course that has been heralded by the entire Aud FIS Alpine World Cup field. Cook finished 2.23-seconds behind the Soelden winner Lara Gut of Switzerland, who put down a smooth and aggressive line early in the race to take the victory. Saturday the U.S. women’s speed team takes the Raptor race speed venue again for a World Cup super G, which will be aired live on NBCSN at 12:30p.m. EST. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• The U.S. Ski Team took on the steep and challenging new Nature Valley Raptor downhill during the debut of the 2015 FIS World Ski Championships women’s venue.
• Veteran Stacey Cook (Mammoth Mountain, CA) earned the top spot for the U.S. Ski Tea, finishing 19th despite the bumpy ruts that had developed on the course.
• Cook finished 2.23-seconds behind the winner Swiss skier Lara Gut, who put down a smooth and aggressive line early in the race to take the victory.
• Three-time Olympic medalist Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) finished 20th with Laurenne Ross (Bend, OR) 22nd.
• Rookie Jacqueline Wiles (Aurora, OR) started her first World Cup race Friday, finishing 44th. Leanne Smith (N. Conway, NH) had a podium run going before hooking an edge above the finish jump, forcing her to pull off course.
• Saturday the U.S. women’s speed team takes the hill again for World Cup super G, which will be aired live on NBCSN at 12:30p.m. EST.

QUOTES
Stacey Cook
Yea it’s pretty bumpy and just is a hard course to figure out, especially when it changes day to day. It’s just hard to get a grip on it and I struggled a little bit on executing my plan. That happens on new courses. On that training run I was starting a little bit earlier and it was a lot smoother than it is now. The bumps seemed to knock me around a lot today and I’m not sure why. We’ll have to look at the video and figure out what went wrong. Races like this happen; it’s just unfortunate that it happened on our home turf.

It’s a World Cup. It’s a qualifier for the Olympics so it matters, but what we’re really here for is a test event for next year’s World Championships. So it definitely gives me some fire to figure out what went wrong before next year.

Julia Mancuso
It’s tough. It’s a really steep and tricky downhill for the start of the season, but when you’re feeling it you can really go for it. I don’t feel super comfortable yet, I just knew I wanted to go out and do my best.

It’s another run. It wasn’t my best run, but it’s a beautiful day and it’s another good day of training and a good experience for the World Champs next year. It’s a really fun hill. It’s a great crowd. I’m really psyched to see everyone come out to watch us race.

Laurenne Ross
It was tough. It was bumpy. It was icier than it has been. It was choppier than it has been. There were more ruts than there has been. It was just really, really challenging. It was really tough to stay on line. It was really tough to stay in a good position and I think it shows the girls who could do that are fast.

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