The world’s most daring Alpine skiers descend the most famous annual race this weekend, while Mikaela Shiffrin tackles her own challenge, live on NBC Sports.
The men’s World Cup stops in Kitzbuehel, Austria, for the Hahnenkamm. The granddaddy is Saturday’s downhill, sandwiched between Friday’s super-G and Sunday’s slalom.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been among the celebrity attendees in the finish area. Lindsey Vonn will be on hand this weekend, inspecting the course.
The Streif downhill track is a two-minute, two-mile test of guts: a 3,000-foot drop at an average 65 miles per hour (and maxing out much faster than that). Crashes are commonplace. A helicopter is at the ready to airlift skiers to the nearest hospital.
“You go into the starting gate, and it’s intimidating,” said American Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who makes his Kitzbuehel downhill debut on Saturday. “You don’t really know how it’s going to go. You think it’s just going to be kind of chaos.”
Cochran-Siegle, whose uncle Bob Cochran was the first American to earn a World Cup podium in the race in 1973, used two words to describe the Streif: fun ... and fear.
The only American to win the Hahnenkamm downhill was Daron Rahlves in 2003. The last podium finisher was Bode Miller in 2014. The best U.S. finish the last four years was 10th.
Bryce Bennett took confidence from finishing seventh at a World Cup downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, last Saturday. That’s the best U.S. downhill finish this season outside of the home snow of Beaver Creek, Colo.
“Team morale is good, and it’s been great all season long,” said Steven Nyman, who was fifth in 2015. “We’re looking for those top-tier performances. Bryce’s seventh is a good step forward. We all know we can ski well, and it’s cool as a team we’re pushing toward the top, but we’re not there yet.”
Over in Bansko, Bulgaria, Shiffrin is expected to race downhills Friday and Saturday and a super-G on Sunday. They would mark the slalom ace’s first downhills outside of Lake Louise and Cortina d’Ampezzo, which she’s contested a combined 10 times.
Shiffrin made the podium of her last super-G in St. Moritz and her last downhill in Lake Louise, both in December. She’s coming off surprising results in slaloms and giant slaloms, not having won in her last five starts overall.
Still, Shiffrin leads the World Cup overall standings by a substantial 199 points with a tour-leading four outright victories this season.
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MORE: Alpine skiing season TV schedule
Day | Time (ET) | Event | Network |
Friday | 3:30 a.m. | Women’s Downhill | Olympic Channel | NBC Sports Gold |
5:30 a.m. | Men’s Super-G | NBC Sports Gold | |
Saturday | 3:30 a.m. | Women’s Downhill | Olympic Channel | NBC Sports Gold |
5:30 a.m. | Men’s Downhill | NBC Sports Gold | |
9 a.m.* | Women’s Downhill | NBCSN | |
Sunday | 3:30 a.m. | Women’s Super-G | Olympic Channel | NBC Sports Gold |
4:30 a.m. | Men’s Slalom Run 1 | NBC Sports Gold | |
7:30 a.m. | Men’s Slalom Run 2 | NBC Sports Gold | |
12:30 p.m.* | Women’s Super-G | NBCSN | |
Monday | 1 p.m.* | Kitzbuehel Highlights | NBCSN |
*Delayed broadcast