Norway dominates the top 5 in Wengen

Henrik Kristoffersen. Photo: GEPA pictures.

WENGEN, Switzerland — Henrik Kristoffersen raced through steady falling snow to win Sunday’s World Cup slalom and complete a Norwegian three-race weekend sweep.

For the third straight day, in three different disciplines, a Norwegian won with a home nation Swiss racer runner-up.

Today’s winner is defending World Cup slalom champion Henrik Kristoffersen. Also Joining Kristoffersen on the podium is Lucas Braathen, who ended the day in third. But wait, there is more; US-born Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath was fifth. All four of the Norwegian qualifiers finished in the first 15 and three were among the five best, with two on the podium. Notably, Braathen, McGrath, and Steen Olsen are all younger than 23 years old and cooperate in the same training group.

“Everything worked out great,” said Kristoffersen, who started immediately after Braathen and heard the public address down at the finish praising that race-leading run.

He completed the Norwegian sweep at Wengen just as he did in 2016, when Aksel Lund Svindal won the downhill and Kjetil Jansrud won the Alpine combined.

Kristoffersen finished 0.20 seconds ahead of first-run leader Loïc Meillard who could not provide Switzerland its first win in 36 years in its classic World Cup slalom.

Lucas Braathen was third, 0.49 behind his Norway teammate Kristoffersen, one week after he won the slalom at nearby Adelboden. Other racers were all at least a second further behind.

The snow was falling during the final run of the Wengen slalom. However, the competition was fantastic. A Norwegian coach set the second course and immediately his approach seemed to work. The first Norwegian racer to ski was Alexander Steen Olsen. He won the run and crossed with the lead. Steen Olson then watched from the leader’s chair as the next 13 racers could not match his combined time. However, Steen Olsen, who ended the day 14th, was only the first part of the Norwegian domination.

Fans are fortunate to have these fantastic Norwegian tech skiers to enjoy. Throw in Kilde and a Norwegian won every 2023 race in Wegen.

Home country success

Home country fans were doing their best to will their first-run leader Loic Meillard to victory, but after struggling on the steep, he lost his razor-thin lead in the final sector to finish second. Meillard is one of the best all-around skiers in the world but has yet to win a World Cup. However, he has been second in slalom twice this season. The other Swiss to take advantage of skiing at home was the 2012 and first Youth Olympic slalom winner, Sandro Simonet. Simonet was 28th after the first run and moved up 12 positions to end the day 16th. The Swiss had six racers score today, the most of any nation.

The 26-year-old Meillard is still searching for a first World Cup slalom win despite four career podium places in the discipline and 21 top-10 finishes.

“The skiing is there. It’s just a question of time,” he said. “A few mistakes have cost too much and that makes the difference with Henrik.”

The World Cup circuit now moves to the classic Austrian venue Kitzbühel for two downhills and a slalom.

North America had three in the final run for the first time this season

Benjamin Ritchie was the first of three North Americans to ski the final run. Ritchie was looking to take advantage of starting second for the last run but straddled on the steep pitch. The good news is that Ritchie has qualified for two consecutive finals. The bad news is he has been unable to capitalize on either of his early start numbers.

Next to ski was Luke Winters, who was able to ski well in parts of the second run and scored for the second time this season, finishing 24th.

Winters said, “Today I didn’t ski great first round, but felt like I did what I could in second run. I wanted to take advantage and didn’t quite do so, but I got two through again and some World Cup points never hurt.

Canada’s Erik Read was the fastest North American of the day. Read is consistently scoring this year and finished 22nd in Wengen.

Analysis of podium skiers, North Americans qualified for the second run, and final results

Results for Sunday, January 15th Wengen slalom

The Associated Press contributed to this report.