Ganong Seventh In Val d’Isere Super G Opener

VAL D’ISERE, France (Dec. 2, 2016) – Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) and Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, VT) brushed aside the disappointment of losing home field advantage by leading the U.S. to a seventh-place and 15th-place respective finishes in Friday’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup super G.

Norway took the top two spots on the podium with Kjetil Jansrud winning his 15th career World Cup. Aksel Lund Svindal, who is back after suffering a season-ending knee injury in Kitzbuehel last season, was second. Italy’s Dominik Paris was third.

Friday’s race was scheduled for Beaver Creek, CO. However, weather conditions forced the FIS to relocate the Birds of Prey events to Val d’Isere for the opening speed World Cup, where the men are racing for the first time sine 2007. Ganong’s result, his sixth career top-10 World Cup result, came from the 27th start position.

“Seventh place from that start position is a really solid result and I can build off of that. It’s a good way to start the season,” said Ganong, who was bumped from the top 20 on the start list due to a new start order, which allows athletes with 500 overall World Cup points to be slotted in after the first seed. “I kind of got screwed (on the start order) and I was pretty bummed out last night.”

Ryan Cochran-Siegle scored a career-best World Cup result in Val d'Isere, France (Getty Images/Agence Zoom-Alain Grosclaude)

Equally as impressive was Cochran-Siegle’s 15th-place finish, a career-best World Cup result, which came from the 61st start position. This was Cochran-Siegle's first World Cup super G since his injury in 2013, when he blew his ACL and MCL while racing the downhill portion of the alpine combined at the Schladming World Championships. Head Coach Sasha Rearick said this result is a "major, major success."

“Coming through the finish, it was a little hairy,” Cochran-Siegle said. “Sometimes you think you kill it, and sometimes you think you suck. And I thought I had more suck that run, but I guess I was just enough on the edge that I was able to put it in there.”

Other American finishers included Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) 18th; Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) 29th; Steve Nyman (Sundance, UT) 33rd; Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City, UT) 34th; Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) 50th; Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, CA) 53rd.

Next up, the first men’s downhill of the season is Saturday in Val d’Isere. Watch it in high definition live via NBCsports.com/live at 4:45 a.m. (EST).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Travis Ganong finished seventh to lead four Americans into the top 30.
• Ganong scored his sixth career top-10 World Cup super G result.
• Ryan Cochran-Siegle scored a career-best World Cup result in 15th. 
• Siegle's previous World Cup best was 20th at Lake Louise in November 2012. This was his first World Cup super G since his injury in 2013 at World Championships in Schladming.
• Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud won his 15th career World Cup with Friday’s super G victory.
• Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last year at Kitzbuhel, was second.
• The first downhill of the season is Saturday on Val d’Isere’s OK (Oreiller-Killy) course.

QUOTES
Travis Ganong
First race of the year, I had the pre-race jitters and was way more nervous than normal. But then it felt good to make that first turn and turn my brain off and just have some fun.

Seventh place from that start position is a really solid result and I can build off of that. It’s a really good way to start the season.

[On the new start list]
With the new start order, I kind of got screwed today because I was 20th on the list. But (Alexis) Pinturault has 500 points, so automatically gets 16th (start position). So I got bumped out of the top 20 and had to start 27th.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle
Coming through the finish, it was a little hairy. Sometimes you think you kill it, and sometimes you think you suck. And I thought I had more suck that run, but I guess I was just enough on the edge that I was able to put it in there. I wasn’t really expecting anything. I was just trying to send it down as hard as possible. If I make it down, then I’d be happy.

Andrew Weibrecht
I’m still trying to get into the rhythm a little bit. We haven’t trained a lot of real dynamic stuff lately, so it’s definitely a learning curve right now for me. But every day is a little bit better and I’m looking forward to the downhill tomorrow.

RESULTS
Men’s Super G

TV SCHEDULE
BROADCAST AND LIVE STREAMING (times EST)
Friday, Dec. 2
1:00 p.m. – Men’s SG, Val d’Isere – NBCSN

Saturday, Dec. 3
4:45 a.m. – Men’s DH, Val d’Isere – NBCsports.com – LIVE STREAM
5:00 p.m. – Men’s DH, Val d’Isere – NBC

Sunday, Dec. 4
4:00 a.m. – Men’s GS1, Val d’Isere – NBCsports.com – LIVE STREAM
7:00 a.m. – Men’s GS2, Val d’Isere – NBCsports.com – LIVE STREAM
5:00 p.m. – Men’s GS, Val d’Isere – NBCSN