Nyman Second in Chamonix

CHAMONIX, France (Feb. 20, 2016) – Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) nailed his second downhill podium in a row, snagging second place in Chamonix Saturday.

The light was flat on the hill, but Friday’s heavy snow let up and left the track in clean condition. A ski Mecca, as the racers have been calling Chamonix, it is the first Audi FIS Ski World Cup race series in the location in four years.

Nyman showed his strength as a glider, skiing well throughout the course. Despite a little wild in some sections, he was able to harness his power to ski into the finish in first place. Only Dominik Paris was able to sneak past him to take the win, while Beat Feuz of Switzerland was third.

“I skied well for the most part. I had a mistake on the first split and was a little wild through a couple splits,” said Nyman. “I let the skis keep going - hats off to my technician. He prepared some rocket ships. I’m good at tucking, so I had a great bottom.”

Steven Nyman rips to second place in Chamonix. (Getty Images-Phillipe Desmazes)

It was Nyman’s second podium in two weeks, having taken third in the Jeongseon World Cup, a 2018 PyeongChang Olympic test event.

“Two podiums in a row is great. Hopefully I can keep it rolling through the end of the season,” said Nyman. “I had a rough start of the year - had some questions in my head. When you have those doubts and those questions, you’re never fully sending it down the hill like you should. I answered those questions with training.”

Behind Nyman, Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) was the only other American to finish in the points, taking 18th. Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) was 33rd, Wiley Maple (Aspen, CO) 38th, Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, CA) 39th and Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, CA) 49th.

Steven Nyman stands on the podium with Dominik Paris and Beat Feuz. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom-Michel Cottin)

The men and women next head to Stockholm for the city event Tuesday. The speed team has a couple weeks off of racing before traveling to Kvetfjell, Norway for downhill and super G in March.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Steven Nyman took second place, his second podium in two World Cup downhills. He was third in the Jeongseon downhill on Feb. 6.
• Next up, the men and women head to Stockholm for the city event Tuesday.
• The men’s downhill will re-air on Universal HD at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Steven Nyman skis to second place.

QUOTES

Steven Nyman
I skied well for the most part. I had a mistake on the first split and was a little wild through a couple splits. I let the skis keep going—hats off to my technician. He prepared some rocket ships. I’m good at tucking, so I had a great bottom. Dominik [Paris], that guy has some kilos on him and some fast skis as well and took me on it.

The vision is the hard part—with the snow yesterday and the flat light today. The lines kind of changed. Up top, I was overskiing it a little because the lines were a little different than they were in the training runs. I noticed that and was like, this is too easy; I need to really straighten it out. I did that and it paid off. The biggest issue today is the flat light. We had two great training runs with great light and you could see all the terrain, but I knew the course in my head and I knew where I needed to project myself off of those jumps. It was good.

Two podiums in a row is great. Hopefully I can keep it rolling through the end of the season. I had a rough start of the year—had some questions in my head. When you have those doubts and those questions, you’re never fully sending it down the hill like you should. I answered those questions with training. But the hard part was the training we had wasn’t that good, so I couldn’t really get done what I needed to get done with my equipment and in my head. Once I dialed that in, it was fine.

RESULTS
Men’s downhill