4 NorAms in 1 day at Whiteface
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Karina Schwartznau
It was a long day at Whiteface Mountain for the third day of NorAm racing. Four sets of medals were awarded across super-G and alpine combined with a battle between Alpine Canada’s Kyle Alexander and Sam Mulligan, and U.S. Ski Team’s Isaiah Nelson.
The men started the morning with two scored super-G races. 22-year-old Alexander had a dominating day in the super-G, taking back-to-back wins. He added two golds to his previous four NorAm podium finishes this year.
Mulligan and Nelson battled for the remaining podium spots. In the first race it was Nelson in second place with a total time of 52.10, nearly a second behind Alexander. Alexander’s teammate Mulligan finished third before switching positions in the second race and finishing second. Nelson was 0.06 behind in third.
Just off the podium each race was American Downhiller and two-time Olympian Jared Goldberg. After a downhill crash in January that resulted in a minor tibial plateau fracture and ligament tear in his ankle, Goldberg chose to persevere in pain through the World Cup tour. After falling short of 2022 Olympic qualifications, Goldberg made a quick stop at the NorAms before a training block prior to the Kvitfjell World Cup in March.
“I’m feeling pretty good,” said Goldberg. “My knee is healing well, just have some pain in my upper shin from an ankle sprain I had. I can ski pretty hard on it now. Doctors told me I wouldn’t make things worse if I skied on it and it just needed some time.”
Once the super-G races concluded the men switched into their slalom skis for the alpine combined. The super-G doubled as the first run time for the alpine combined.
Alexander took his third win of the day in the first alpine combined while Filip Forejetk of the Czech Republic moved into second place with the fastest slalom run after sitting in 11th. Nelson maintained his position with a strong slalom run and finished third while Mulligan fell to fifth.
The final race of the day shook up the leaderboard. Both Alexander and Mulligan struggled to maintain their positions in the slalom and made room for Nelson to take his first NorAM win.
The 20-year-old U.S. C Team member has been consistently finishing in the top-10 NorAm standings yet had fallen short of a podium finish until today. Nearly two years after his first NorAm podium also at Whiteface, Nelson captured four podium finishes in one day.
Accompanying Nelson was teammate and U.S. Ski Team rookie Copper Puckett in his first NorAm podium with the bronze after a 15th-place super-G run. Moving up 12 positions into second place was Canada’s Liam Wallace with the fastest slalom run.
The men transition back to slalom on Friday for the fourth day of racing.
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