Switzerland’s Justin Murisier won the alpine World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek on Saturday, holding off superstar compatriot Marco Odermatt to claim his first World Cup victory.
Murisier, whose only prior World Cup podium was a giant slalom third place at Alta Badia in 2021, was third out of the gate on the Birds of Prey course and delivered a storming run of 1min 40.04sec.
Odermatt, skiing eighth, clocked 1:40.24 to finish second and Slovenian Miha Hrobat finished third in 1:40.39 in the first speed race of the season.
Swiss joy in a one-two finish was tempered by a heavy crash for Arnaud Boisset.
Odermatt, who won a third straight World Cup overall title as well as the downhill, super-G and giant slalom titles last season, notched his first podium finish of the young season, having failed to finish the season-opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria.
France’s Cyprien Sarrazin, who dueled with Odermatt for the downhill crown last season, finished well off the podium, 1.03sec behind Murisier.
It was a second Beaver Creek downhill runner-up finish for Odermatt, who was second to Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in 2022.
That was the last time the men raced at Beaver Creek, with heavy snow and strong winds forcing cancellation last year.
Norway’s Kilde, who completed downhill and super-G doubles at Beaver Creek in 2021 and 2022, announced in October he would miss the entire season after complications in the wake of shoulder surgery following his crash in Wengen last January.
The Beaver Creek event continues with a super-G on Saturday and a giant slalom on Sunday.
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