Kjetil Jansrud wins World Cup gold in downhill race

The highlight of an Alpine skiing world championship, the men's downhill, had to be postponed from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. today due to persistent snowfall and tenacious fog. Due to the bad weather conditions in Åre, Sweden, even a race cancellation was on the cards. Accordingly, the course was also shortened. 

The list of favorites included Dominik Paris, Beat Feuz, Vincent Kriechmayr and Aksel Lund Svindal, who was competing in his very last ski race today. But as is so often the case at World Championships and Olympics, a competitor who is not at the top of the list of candidates wins in the end. This is how it happened today.

After the first skiers, including Mauro Caviezel or Matthias Mayer, the Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud starts the race with his handicap, his injured hand. Kjetil, who has not been able to score in the World Cup for quite some time as he did in his brilliant season in 2015, is known to always be a candidate for a medal at big events. He delivered a clean run and took more time from the leader Matthias Mayer from intermediate time to intermediate time until he ended up with a lead of 0.65 seconds at the finish. However, it was not yet known what the time was really worth. With the number 9, compatriot Aksel Lund Svindal started into the last race of his career. And it seemed he wanted to prove it to everyone once again. And he was the only one who was able to keep up with Jansrud, crossing the finish line 0.02 seconds behind him. Now we knew that Jansrud's time had been really good. But now you still had to wait for big favorites like Dominik Paris, Beat Feuz or Vincent Kriechmayr. Feuz and Kriechmayr both skied very cleanly despite difficult conditions, but they were not able to break the time, nor was Paris, yet they all placed among the top six skiers.

After the run of Christof Innerhofer, who once again made a mistake on his run and therefore only crossed the finish line in eleventh place, it was clear that no one would be able to snatch the crown from Jansrud. And that is so well deserved! How talented the combative Norwegian is, and he has always had to bite and get in line the last few years. This is now the reward for the agony. The double victory of the Norwegians a real pleasure! For Jansrud, the gold medal is compensation for the long difficult time he had to endure, especially in the World Cup, and for Svindal the silver medal is the farewell gift of his career for a truly gifted ski racer.