Jansrud becomes first World Cup downhill champion in Korea

Winner Kjetil Jansrud of Norway waves as he is introduced at an award ceremony following a men's World Cup downhill rac at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre in Jeongseon, Korea, Saturday. / AP-Yonhap

IOC gives perfect score for the first PyeongChang test

By Nam Hyun-woo

JEONGSEON, Gangwon Province -- Kjetil Jansrud of Norway captured the gold medal at the 2016 Audi FIS (International Ski Federation) Ski World Cup in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, Saturday.

The event at Jeongseon Alpine Center, the venue for the Olympic alpine downhill, Super-G and combined, was the first of 28 Olympic and Paralympic tests for the PyeongChang Winter Games. In 2006, Yongpyong, Gangwon Province, hosted the men’s Giant Slalom race, but Saturday’s race was the first men’s World Cup downhill event ever held in Korea.

The world No. 6 Norwegian clocked 1 minute 41.38 seconds at the 2,852 meter, 825 vertical meter course to collect his country’s sixth downhill victory this season, breaking the previous record of five wins in a season during the 1998-99 season.

“Happy to be back winning,” said the first World Cup downhill winner in Korea. “There’s been a lot of good skiing this season. I’ve been trying to ski better every day. I’ve had some issues and mistakes, and this is the first run of the season where I’ve skied without any mistakes.”

He said Norway now has a golden generation, including him and Aksel Lund Svindal, the world No. 1, who missed the race due to an injury, but said pressure will be coming in two years. Norway has never collected gold medals for downhill in the Olympic Games.

“There are a lot of hopes in the (Norwegian ski) federation and among the people. Pressure is going to be high in two years. And I’m happy today. It’s a good first run-through before the Olympics.”

Coming in second was Dominik Paris of Italy who was 0.20 seconds behind Jansrud and Steven Nyman of the U.S. came in a 1:41.79 to claim third place. Paris made his first podium finish of this season.

Jansrud, who was the gold medalist in Super-G and bronze medalist in downhill at the 2014 Sochi Games, clocked the fastest at 1:41.18 at Friday’s training session, and was widely viewed as the favorite at Jeongseon.

Peter Fill of France, world No. 2, remained at fourth place with 1:41.85.

The race had extra significance for the athletes, who will likely be back here in two years, and also for the PyeongChang Olympics organizers. The athletes said they are satisfied with the compact course here, and also like the huge jumps on the course.

“I liked the hill,” said Paris. “It was pretty cool, fun, and I had a lot of chances to perform and the snow preparation was very good.”

Nyman echoed that feeling, “The race course has a lot of flow to it,” he said. “You have to be clever with your control and accurate with the turns. I really enjoyed it.”

“Obviously, today is the highlight of the season. To come here and learn about Korean culture and what we’re going to experience when we come back for the Olympics is really special,” said Nyman.

This was a huge relief to the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission Chair Gunilla Lindberg, PyeongChang chief organizer Cho Yang-ho and FIS President Gian Franco Kasper.

“You know, in the world of sports, it’s very difficult to reach the maximum score,” said Lindberg to the question how many points she can give to Saturday’s event. “However, I am giving it 100 points.”

“When we were here in the first week of December last year, we had some doubts that this event was going to take place, but we trusted President Cho’s promise that it would happen and here we are. He made the impossible possible,” she said.

Gian Franco Kasper agreed. “FIS really had doubts that this venue would be ready for this first World Cup downhill in Korea on time this year,” the FIS president said.

“We had no plan B and President Cho made a promise and he really kept it. I know it was very difficult but the work done by the organizing committee as a team was really enormous. We have an excellent downhill course here, according to the athletes and coaches. It’s a downhill which is really made for the Olympics.”

“We had promised to deliver and we delivered,” Cho said, adding that “this is just the beginning. The journey to the 2018 games has officially started.”

Hours earlier in Switzerland, Korea’s skeleton racer Yun Sung-bin collected the country’s first-ever gold medal at the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) World Cup.

In St. Moritz, Yun clocked a combined 2 minutes and 18.26 seconds after two runs (1:09.44 in the first run and 1:08.82 in the second) to best the Latvian brothers of Tomass and Martins Dukurs, who have been dominant this season. The Dukurs were tied at 2:18.33 for second place.

With the World Cup having one more race, Martins Dukurs is on top of the leader board with 1,560 points, and Yun is No.2 with 1,365 points. Tomass Dukurs is third with 1,348 points.