CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland — World champion Franjo von Allmen dominated the last men's World Cup downhill before the Olympics on Sunday, giving troubled ski resort Crans-Montana a second Swiss victory of the weekend.
With the Olympic race coming up in six days, von Allmen won his second downhill of the season and fourth overall after beating Italian veteran and Bormio specialist Dominik Paris by 0.65 seconds.
“I really like the slope, it’s really easy to ski but not easy to be fast,” von Allmen said. “It gives a lot of confidence and I’ll try to show also my best skiing in Bormio. This was really important for me and I’m going with a good feeling.”
The Alpine skiing events of the Milan Cortina Games open with the men’s downhill on Saturday on the storied Stelvio course, where the 36-year-old Paris has won a record six downhills between 2012 and 2021.
The Italian was the eighth starter in Sunday's race and saw his lead hold up against several pre-race favorites before von Allmen came down.
“I knew Franjo is hard to beat, he’s really fast on this terrain,” Paris said. “To be on the podium today is a good feeling.”
Racing in perfect sunny conditions under blue skies, Ryan Cochran-Siegle was 0.70 off the lead in third for the American's second podium of the Olympic season, after finishing runner-up to World Cup leader Marco Odermatt in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in early December.
“I was just more focused on enjoying it. It’s so rare that we get days like this, nice sunshine on a sunny slope with fun terrain,” Cochran-Siegle said.
“My skiing was fluent enough that I was able to keep carrying speed. It’s funny that you get to the bottom and you have no idea how I’m going to do, so always surprised to be in there as a contender.”
Cochran-Siegle was nine-hundredths faster than fourth-placed Odermatt, whose streak of eight downhills in which he finished first or second came to an end.
Cochran-Siegle was the only skier in the top 10 not from Switzerland or Italy, though Giovanni Franzoni was not among them this time.
Enjoying a breakout season with four podiums, including recent wins in the Wengen super-G and Kitzbühel downhill, the Italian struggled on the Piste Nationale and was 1.74 off the pace in 23rd.
Some top contenders from Austria, including 2021 world champion Vincent Kriechmayr, sat out the race to have more time to prepare for the Olympics, where downhill training starts on Wednesday.
The race was interrupted when Chilean racer Henrik von Appen, a late starter with bib 47, crashed and had to be airlifted off the course. There was no immediate update on his condition.
Von Allmen also won last year’s World Cup downhill in Crans-Montana, which hosts the 2027 world championships and where he will be the defending champion.
His victory Sunday came a day after fellow Swiss racer Malorie Blanc won the women's super-G on an adjacent course in Crans-Montana that uses the same finish area.
The race weekend had a chaotic start Friday, when the women's downhill was called off amid worsening weather conditions. Three of the first six starters had crashed, including Lindsey Vonn, who hurt her left knee and sat out Saturday's super-G.
Crans-Montana hosted the events a month after the fatal fire in a bar that killed 40 people and injured 116 on New Year's Day.
Usual festivities at World Cup venues, like public bib draws and concerts, were canceled and the course was stripped of advertising banners, which in the finish area were replaced by white and black signs of mourning that read “Our thoughts are with you” in multiple languages.
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