Nyman Grabs Fourth in World Cup Finals

MERIBEL, UT (March 18, 2015)—In the first World Cup Finals race of the week, Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) was the top American, taking fourth place in the downhill. Kjetil Jansrud of Norway won the race, and snagged the downhill crystal globe. 

It was a beautiful day for the downhill in Meribel, France, with sunshine and warm weather stoking the roaring crowd. Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA) was the first American racer out of the start, and took eighth overall—a solid finish for the World Cup veteran. Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) took ninth and Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) was 24th.

The downhill title came down to Jansrud and Hannes Reichelt of Austria, with Jansurd required to finish ahead of Reichelt to ensure the globe. But Reichelt’s 10th place finish wasn’t enough to usurp the globe from Jansrud, who threw down an amazing run to take the win ahead of Didier Defago of Switzerland and Georg Streitberger of Austria. Behind Jansrud, Reichelt finished second in the downhill standings, followed by Guillermo Fayed of France.

Nyman was excited about his fourth place finish, although he just missed the podium by .26 seconds. It was more about his successful season for him—finishing sixth in the downhill standings, his career-best result. “Consistency was my main goal and I was pretty consistent this year,” said Nyman, who has been plagued by injuries and crashes in past seasons. “To end like this, I’m really happy with it. Hopefully I can carry it into next year. I started outside the 30 this year so my main goal is to get in with the top guys and really push for a title next year.”

The super G takes place on Thursday, with Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, UT) and Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) leading the American charge. Jansrud has already won the super G globe, with the rest of the men competing for second place. Jansrud sits behind tech-specialist Marcel Hirscher of Austria in the overall standings by 64 points.

HIGHLIGHTS

• World Cup Finals downhill podium—Kjetil Jansrud was first, Didier Defago second and Georg Streitberger third.
• Final World Cup downhill standings—Kjetil Jansrud first, Hannes Reichelt second and Guillermo Fayed third.
• This was Kjetil Jansrud’s 10th career World Cup win and his seventh of the season.
• Steven Nyman had four top-five results during the season, including a win in Val Gardena.
• Nyman was sixth and Travis Ganong was 11th in the World Cup downhill standings. Marco Sullivan was 19th.
• Nyman’s sixth place is his best finish in the World Cup downhill standings.

QUOTES
Steven Nyman
Consistency was my main goal and I was pretty consistent this year. Couple of fourths, fifth, first, third—I can’t complain. I‘m pretty happy with my season. I had a couple races where I knew I could do really well, but the weather was tough. To end like this, I’m really happy with it. Hopefully I can carry it into next year. I started outside the 30 this year so my main goal is to get in with the top guys and really push for a title next year. I think I’ve really set myself up for that. 

I’m just confident on my skis. That’s the biggest thing. I have a better understanding of skiing. Over last spring we did a lot of technical drills and learning with PSIA. We’re going back to that this spring and refining my movement over my skis and making that consistent and natural.

The whole team is figuring on a lot of cylinders, but I think we all have more left in us. I think that Marco stepping up at the end of the year is really, really good and positive for our team. Travis and I are really hammering, and hopefully Jared and the young bucks can step it up and really push with us. Get multiple people on the podium is stuff we talk about. Seeing that with Darren and Bode was inspiring as young kids and hopefully we can do the same in the next generation. As American downhillers, we got a good crew and we have a lot of fun together. That’s the biggest thing. We’ll carry it into the summer and through next year and see what we’re capable of.

RESULTS
Men's downhill results
Audi FIS Ski World Cup - final men's downhill standings