Austrian skier Kriechmayr wins downhill race in Kitzbuehel

Vincent Kriechmayr won Austria's most storied World Cup race Fri‐ day to give the ski‐mad nation a reason to celebrate in its other‐ wise disappointing season so far.

Kriechmayr won the first of two downhills on the classic Streif course and remained the only Austrian skier, male or female, to win a World Cup event this cam‐ paign.

Kriechmayr mastered the de‐ manding course in cloudy condi‐ tions as the world champion sped to his 15th career victory, while co‐favorites Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Marco Odermatt only narrowly avoided high‐speed crashes.

Odermatt, the overall World Cup leader, hurt his left knee in the in‐ cident and will sit out the second downhill on Saturday while un‐ dergoing further tests, the Swiss ski team said.

Odermatt lost grip about 25 sec‐ onds into his run. The defending overall champion regained bal‐ ance with his right ski high up in the air but almost crashed into the safety netting. He avoided risks for the remainder of his run and finished more than three seconds behind and outside the World Cup points.

Kriechmayr, the only skier not from Norway or Switzerland to win a men's World Cup race this season, became the third Austrian in the last 15 years to win the Kitzbuehel race, after Hannes Re‐ ichelt triumphed in 2014 and Matthias Mayer six years later.

As skies over the middle of the course cleared during the race, several late starters benefited from improved visibility.

Swiss skier Niels Hintermann finished 0.31 behind in third, and Jared Goldberg came 0.35 back in fourth for the American's career‐ best World Cup result.

Kilde, who leads the World Cup downhill standings after winning four of the previous six races this season, finished 0.97 off the pace in 16th.