Norway goes 1-2 in Beaver Creek downhill; American surprise
By Nick ZaccardiDec 4, 2015, 2:46 PM EST
Aksel Lund Svindal won his third straight World Cup race as part of Norway's first one-two downhill finish since 1999 in Beaver Creek, Colo., on Friday.
Svindal, the three-time 2010 Olympic medalist, beat countryman Kjetil Jansrud by three tenths of a second on the Birds of Prey course.
The last time Norway went one-two in a World Cup downhill was 1999, when Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Lasse Kjus did so in Kitzbühel, Austria.
"Kjetil [Jansrud] came pretty close in the end … got to respect that," Svindal said on NBCSN. "If he was a touch faster on the top, then he would probably have had me. … I pulled it off nicely."
France's Guillermo Fayed was third. Full results are here.
The top American was two-time Olympic super-G medalist Andrew Weibrecht in fifth, matching his best World Cup finish and his first World Cup downhill top-10 in eight years.
Svindal's 28th career World Cup win added to his downhill and super-G victories from Lake Louise, Alberta, last weekend.
Jansrud pulled off the same three-peat last season, a campaign Svindal missed after rupturing an Achilles tendon playing soccer in October 2014.
"I knew I was good enough to win races [coming back from the injury], but it's a big difference between being able to win and actually pulling it off," Svindal said on NBCSN. "[Jansrud and I] are neck to neck in training all the time."
The last man to win four straight World Cup races was Austrian legend Hermann Maier, one month before his epic crash at the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics and recovery to win two golds later in those Winter Games.
Svindal padded his World Cup overall standings lead as he tries to unseat four-time reigning World Cup overall champion Marcel Hirscher, a slalom and giant slalom specialist from Austria.
Racing continues on Saturday with a super-G and Sunday with a giant slalom in Beaver Creek, with both events live on NBC Sports.
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Norway doing alright Beaver Creek!!!
A photo posted by Aksel Lund Svindal (@asvindal) on Dec 4, 2015 at 10:43am PST