Weibrecht Top 15 in Meribel Super G

MERIBEL, France (March 19, 2015)—The World Cup Finals super G kicked off on another beautiful, bluebird day. Dustin Cook of Canada, who has been dancing around the top spot all season, took his first World Cup win. Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) was the top American racer, taking 15th.

Kjetil Jansrud of Norway had already secured his super G globe coming into the Finals, but didn’t ski like it—taking second, just .05 seconds behind Cook. This brings his tally to two crystal globes—one in downhill and one in super G—and sits in second in the overall hunt. However, with tech specialist Marcel Hirscher of Austria taking fourth in the super G and getting ready for the giant slalom and slalom, Hirscher will likely take the overall. Brice Roger of France was third.

Weibrecht had a solid day on the hill. He squeaked out a few super G points by finishing 15th, but wasn’t aggressive on the terrain. “He made some nice turns,” said head coach Sasha Rearick. “Unfortunately today he needed to keep the skis in the fall line more than what he did.”

Ted Ligety was fast on top, but DNFed in the World Cup Finals super G. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom-Alexis Boichard)

Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) was the only other American to start the super G. Even with a bobble, he generated a ton of speed out of the course, but the delay at the bottom tripped him up and he got bounced out of the course.

The men and women will skip the team event in order to stay fresh for the tech events. Next up, the women’s slalom and the men’s GS takes place on Saturday.

HIGHLIGHTS

• World Cup Finals super G podium: Dustin Cook first, Kjetil Jansrud second and Brice Roger third.
• Final super G World Cup standings: Kjetil Jansrud first, Dominik Paris second and Matthias Mayer third.
• Andrew Weibrecht finished 12th in the super G standings.
• Watch the super G on Universal Sports Network at 11:00 a.m., 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ET.

QUOTES
Sasha Rearick, head men’s coach
Great conditions here in Meribel. The race organizers here have done an absolutely fabulous job. The weather has been amazing. Today’s super G was a fast set and you had to go. Ted today was going hard and had one mistake on the pitch. He didn’t seem to lose much time, which was sweet. It was really nice to see Ted charging. On the bottom he got bounced coming around the delay and unfortunately went out of the course.

Weibrecht just didn’t put the hammer down as hard as he could on this course today. He skied well. He made some nice turns. Unfortunately today he needed to keep the skis in the fall line more than what he did.

Looking ahead, looking forward to the GS where we have Tim [Jitloff] and Ted skiing. We all know on this kind of hill is a place where [Ted] can generate speed and if he can go out there and trust himself to generate speed on each turn and be as clean as he can, it’ll be a fun race. Jit is up there being as clean as he can too. He’s working hard to finish off the season strong.

We’ve got the slalom also. David has been here training a couple days—getting moving on his skis again, moving forward. Staying with his skis so he can keep the power in each turn. He’s doing a good job working hard right now.

Then looking forward to U.S. Nationals. Going back to Maine, back to the east. The east always brings lots of energy and excitement to the nationals. Looking forward to going back to Sugarloaf and having a great series there.

RESULTS
Men’s World Cup Finals super G results
Audi FIS Ski World Cup – Overall super G standings