Jeff Read captures first World Cup podium with super-G silver in Norway
Team Canada’s strong weekend continued in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Sunday in the men’s alpine super-G, as Jeff Read of Canmore, Alberta, finished second, claiming his first career World Cup podium.
The result comes just a day after the 26-year-old matched a previous career best with a sixth-place finish in the men’s downhill on the same Norweigan slope, where Cameron Alexander took third place on the podium.
Alexander finished fifth in the super-G, behind a four-person podium with a tie for third place between Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt and Italy’s Dominik Paris.
Read was the third skier to come down the hill on Sunday, crossing the line in one minute 9.40 seconds, only 0.17 seconds behind Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr, who secured the victory.
Alexander, meanwhile, finished with a time of one minute 9.44 seconds, placing him only 0.02 seconds short of finishing in a three-way tie for third place.
“This is a track that is definitely one of our best, if not for sure our best,” Read said post-race. “There is something about the snow, I think, being a bit similar to home, and terrain that we’re really comfortable on, and we have a lot of confidence, so it kind of clicks every time we’re here, and it’s nice to finally be able to capitalize on it for myself.”
While the Canadians found success over the two days of racing, the super-G provided challenges in the opening sections of the course, with tight gates over rollers forcing skiers to make quick adjustments in less-than-ideal snow conditions and overcast weather.
“I guess the stars aligned, and it’s a track that I love and has some speed on, and the skiing was just right today, and I ended up with a good clean run, good enough for second, not quite enough speed to catch Kriechmayr in first, but it was a really tight race, and I’m really stoked to end up on the podium.”
10 skiers of the 63-person start list, including Canada’s Jack Crawford, did not finish the race, many of whom missed one of three gates in the opening portion.
With the podium finish, Read improved his overall ranking in the super-G to seventh, cracking the top 25 mark needed to race in the season finale in Saalbach, Austria, from March 16-24, where he will also ski alongside 13th-ranked Crawford and 20th-ranked Alexander.
Ahead of the World Cup finals, however, come two sets of technical races in the United States, with the circuit set to race slalom and giant slalom races in Palisades Tahoe, California, from Feb. 24-25 and Aspen, Colorado, from March 1-3.
