North American World Cup races come to a close

Over the last two weeks, we saw both the women’s and men’s tours head to the US and Canada for the first time since 2019 to race in Audi FIS World Cup events.

The women’s tour first headed to Killington (USA) to for a giant slalom and a slalom. Unfortunately, due to poor weather conditions, the giant slalom had to be cancelled, however, conditions improved and the slalom race on Sunday was able to go ahead.

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) and Petra Vlhova (SVK) battled for first and second place. Ultimately, Shiffrin  claimed the win in front of a home crowd to equal Ingemar Stenmark’s (SWE) record for most wins in a single discipline (46 wins). Vlhova finished second and Wendy Holdener (SUI) rounded out the podiu, only recently returning to the slope due to a broken wrist she suffered during training.

Whilst the women’s tour was completing their tech events in Killington, the men’s tour was up in Lake Louise (CAN) for the first speed events of the season. Lake Louise was scheduled to host two downhill races and one Super G race, however, due to weather conditions only Saturday's downhill race was staged. Austrian skiers, Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kriechmayr dominated to place first and second, with Mayer winning with a 0.23 second lead over his teammate. Third place went to the four-time defending downhill globe winner, Beat Feuz (SUI), who finished 0.35 seconds off the pace.

The women’s tour then headed up to Lake Louise to compete in their speed events, whereas, the men’s tour headed to Beaver Creek for another four speed events, with Beavcer Creek picking up one of the cancelled Lake Laouis races.

Sofia Goggia dominated the podium in Lake Louise, winning all three races. Her second downhill victory equaled the streak set by Lindsey Vonn (USA) and Picabo Street (USA), at six in a row. The downhill podiums also saw the likes of Breezy Johnson (USA) who placed second in both downhills, Mirjam Puchner (AUT) in third during the first downhill, and Corinne Suter (SUI) who placed third in the second downhill race.

Racing in Beaver Creek started with a super-G which Swiss skier, Marco Odermatt, dominated finishing 0.78 seconds ahead of Mayer. Odermatt’s win saw him become the third Swiss man with back to back super-G wins after Zurbriggen and Accola.

On his 48th World Cup start and starting with bib 35, Broderick Thompson (CAN), surprised everyone by claiming third place. This was Thompson’s first career World Cup podium.

In the second super-G, Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde calimed the victory over Odermatt with a 0.03 second difference. In third place, American Travis Ganong, also claimed his first super-G World Cup podium.

Kilde blew away the competition, also taking the win in the first downhill race. It was his second back-to-back victory after Val Gardena (2020/2021). Mayer finished 0.66 seconds behind Kilde and in third Beat Feuz 1.01 seconds behind the leader.

Unfortunately, Sunday's downhill race was cancelled due to strong wind, enying the North American tour for the 2021-22 season.

With the North American races now over, the tours will head back to Europe. The women’s tour goes to St. Moritz (SUI) for two super-G races on 11th - 12th December. The men’s tour moves to Val d’Isère (FRA) for the opening men's slalom race on the 12th December and one giant slalom on the 11th December.