Bennett Seventh, Cochran-Siegle Eighth in Wengen Downhill
Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran-Siegle scored top 10s on one of the most storied downhills on the FIS World Cup tour, taking seventh and eighth, respectively, in Wengen, Switzerland.
The podium was full of favorites on a sunny day on the Lauberhorn, with Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway nailing the win by .19 seconds—his fifth win of the season. Marco Odermatt of Switzerland finished second after winning Thursday’s super-G and his teammate Beat Feuz—the 2020 Wengen champion—was third. With his victory, Kilde took over the lead in the downhill standings, while Odermatt still has control over the overall.
Bennett had a tough start of the season, struggling with his equipment setup until he burst onto the podium to win the downhill in Val Gardena. Though he expected to do well at Bormio, one of his favorite tracks on the World Cup and one where he’s had top results in the past, he again had issues with his gear. But he and his tech dialed it in for the race down the Lauberhorn track, which resulted in one of his best finishes of the season. “We made some major adjustments to the way we were prepping the skis before we came here,” said Bennett. “The first training run was my best training run all year and I felt pretty good, so it was just getting some confidence back in that.”
Bennett also clocked the fastest speed on the track, hitting almost 94 mph on the Haneggschuss pitch—and he was stoked about it, reminiscing on advice from his former teammate Marco Sullivan. “I remember after Marco retired, he sent a text message out to our whole group—I’ll never forget it,” laughed Bennett. “He was explaining the whole course and he goes, ‘When you hit the Haneggschuss, you better tuck like you love going fast.’ I always think about going as low as possible and going as fast as possible. It’s not often you get to go that fast and I enjoy it.”
Cochran-Siegle also had a banner day, scoring his second-best downhill finish of the season, finishing in eighth—his best result on the Lauberhorn. But he knows he has more in him and will look to improve on the result in Sunday’s downhill.
Travis Ganong also finished in the points, taking 20th. Steven Nyman was 44th and Sam Morse 47th. Following his crash in the super-G, Jared Goldberg was nursing a sore ankle and knee and did not start. Erik Arvidsson also did not start, as he's dealing with some nagging back pain, and has shifted his focus to the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuehel, Austria next week.
The men race downhill again Saturday to wrap up the classic speed races in Wengen before a slalom on Sunday.
RESULTS
Men’s downhill
HOW TO WATCH
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Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022
4:45 a.m. FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Women's Downhill – LIVE, Zauchensee, AUT, Streaming Peacock
6:30 a.m. FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Men's Downhill – LIVE, Wengen, SUI, Olympic Channel, OC 24/7 Player, Streaming Peacock
Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022
4:15 a.m. FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Men's Slalom Run #1 – LIVE, Wengen, SUI, Streaming Peacock
5:30 a.m. FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Women's Super G – LIVE, Zauchensee, AUT, Streaming Peacock
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup, Men's Slalom Run #2 – LIVE, Wengen, SUI, Olympic Channel, OC 24/7 Player, Streaming Peacock
