BORMIO, Italy (AP) — American skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle was fastest in the opening downhill training session of the Milan Cortina Games on Wednesday but another racer had to be airlifted off the fearsome Stelvio slope.
Cochran-Siegle was 0.16 seconds faster than the young Italian Giovanni Franzoni, who is having a fantastic season, and 0.40 ahead of Swiss standout Marco Odermatt.
Times and placings, however, are all but irrelevant in downhill training. Especially as Wednesday's session was the first of three ahead of Saturday's race.
But the way Cochran-Siegle tackled what is probably one of the toughest Olympic slopes of the past 30 years will serve as a confidence boost.
It is Cochran-Siegle's third Winter Olympics. He won silver at the Beijing Games four years ago, claiming the first Olympic Alpine medal for a U.S. man since 2014.
His mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, was the slalom champion at the 1972 Sapporo Games.
Unrelenting, knee-rattling, complicated by shaded sections and producing speeds touching 87 mph, the Stelvio is a notoriously unforgiving track.
It is one of the most physically demanding on the circuit, at almost 3,230 meters long with a 986-meter vertical drop and a maximum gradient of 63%.
With every mistake punished on that slope, Fredrik Møller of Norway had to be taken by helicopter to the hospital after crashing about halfway down as he perhaps rushed the start of a turn and ended up sliding down the slope on his back.
Møller, who has only just returned after breaking three vertebrae in December, swiftly got to his feet but appeared to have a dislocated shoulder. The 25-year-old was taken by helicopter to the hospital in nearby Sondrio, at the bottom of the valley.
Bormio is a regular stop on the men's World Cup circuit. The last time it was raced — in December 2024 — two skiers had to be airlifted to the hospital.
One of those, French standout Cyprien Sarrazin, had to have urgent brain surgery and has not returned to competition.
