Bennett Seventh in Classic Lauberhorn Downhill
After heavy snowfall overnight, the sun came out for the 90th anniversary of the Wengen downhill. Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Bryce Bennett put down a blazing run to take seventh place in the downhill—his best finish so far this season.
Beat Feuz of Switzerland dominated his run, thrilling the Swiss crowd by winning the race handily. Beat has now podiumed in an impressive 16 of the last 18 FIS World Cup downhills. Dominik Paris of Italy, who was going for his third downhill win in a row, was second and Thomas Dressen of Germany took third.
Bryce, who has had moments of brilliance on Wengen's Lauberhorn track before, including a fifth place finish in last season’s downhill, was thrilled about the run. He wore bib 1 and energized the crowd in the finish—pumping his fists over his 6-foot-7-tall body.
It had been a tough year for Bryce leading up to the Wengen World Cups. He hadn’t had a top-15 result until Friday’s alpine combined, and struggled to finish in the points in many of the races. He’s looking at Wengen as a turning point.
“This season started off really poorly and I really had to find some things very quickly and ask some questions to myself,” said Bryce. “I was excited I was able to make some quick decisions and change a few things in my skiing and execute today in this downhill. It just feels good to get some confidence back in my skiing, which I did not have in the first couple of months.”
Ryan Cochran-Siegle also had a solid day; even with a mistake, he put down a 14th place finish. “I was actually happy with the mistake,” said Ryan. “Downhill is tough to make up for that and I think I saved the run with my skiing below that. I was just trying to ski more aggressively and a bit more direct and try to shave time. With that risk comes the ability to make mistakes. Overall, I’m pleased.”
Also skiing into the points were Steven Nyman in 21st, Jared Goldberg in 22nd and Travis Ganong in 27th. Sam Morse finished 51st.
Next up, the tech men get a chance in Wengen with a slalom on Sunday, while the speed skiers are packing up their things to head to the wildest World Cup on the circuit: Kitzbuehel.
“The one place you don’t want to go without confidence in Kitzbuehel,” said Bryce. “Having a little bit of confidence in your skiing is very helpful and having some good focuses is going to be really important for next weekend.”
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HOW TO WATCH
All Times EST
Saturday, Jan. 18
8:00 p.m. - Men’s downhill, Wengen, SUI - NBCSN*
Sunday, Jan. 19
4:15 a.m. - Men’s slalom run 1, Wengen, SUI - Olympic Channel.com, NBC Sports Gold
7:00 a.m. - Men’s slalom run 2, Wengen, SUI - Olympic Channel, Olympic Channel.com, NBC Sports Gold
5:00 p.m. - Men’s downhill, Wengen, SUI - NBC**
9:00 p.m. - Men’s slalom, Wengen, SUI - NBCSN*
*Same-day broadcast
**Next-day broadcast
Note: All televised events to stream across NBCSports.com, NBC Sports app, OlympicChannel.com, and Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA app.
Exclusive commercial-free coverage will be available for subscribers of the NBC Sports Gold Pass, available here: https://www.nbcsports.com/gold/snow.
