Downhill, why is it so difficult to be consistent?

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde: Photo GEPA

With most World Cup downhill races happening on the same courses every year and racers getting multiple training runs down each course, you’d think there’d be more consistency in the discipline.

During the Lindsey Vonn era, there certainly was. The retired star (who recently showed the world she’s still got it by unbelievably skiing the Hahnenkamm downhill course in the dark) was not only the first American woman to win Olympic gold in downhill but notched a whopping 43 World Cup wins and eight titles in the discipline. In Lake Louise alone, she won 18 times (14 in DH, four in SG). No man has ever been that consistent. An Olympic downhill and world champion, Franz Klammer has been the discipline’s most decorated male, with 25 World Cup DH victories to his credit.

Setting a new DH bar

Consistency in downhill appears to be returning to the men’s circuit, at least where athletes like Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Marco Odermatt are concerned.

Freshly crowned world downhill champion, Odermatt had never previously won in the discipline. Leading up to his gold in Courchevel, Odermatt was runner-up seven times on the World Cup (and third place once) downhill circuit. Notably, the World Championship Courchevel course is a downhill that no one has significant experience racing. However, Odermatt had begun finding his downhill stride last season.

“It’s just working very well at the moment – good confidence, fast skis, good technique,” the Swiss star said after the Beaver Creek downhill, in which he lost to Kilde by just .06 seconds even after what appeared to be a wild, mistake-riddled run. “For sure, mistakes can happen. It’s a little bit sad if it’s six hundredths and nowhere to find them, but that’s ski racing.”

One of America’s greatest downhillers of all time, Daron Rahlves, says the willingness to make mistakes leads to downhill greatness.

Risk reaps rewards

“You have to be on that line where you’re willing to make mistakes. You just ski through those mistakes,” Rahlves said. “All of these guys are so fit and skilled. They just have to have that extra mental strength and confidence in themselves and expect to do well. It comes down to confidence and how you ski.”

Confidence is Kilde’s not-so-secret weapon. Besides that squirrely, disaster-defying Kitzbühel race (in which he still finished 16^th), Kilde has finished no worse than fifth in any downhill race this season. He’s won five of the eight World Cup DH races and podiumed twice, including his World Championship silver.

“I believe in myself, trust in myself. I have a good -game plan. When I stand on the start, I don’t dwell on anything,” Kilde said in December after winning the Beaver Creek downhill and super- G for the second consecutive year. “I found a really good setup with my equipment and my skiing. I know that this plan is what I do, and when I do it, it will be fast.”

Although there have been glimpses of greatness from America’s current squad of downhillers, consistency is still a dangling carrot.

The consistency conundrum

“With this elite group of guys, it’s not easy to be consistent among them,” said Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who has notched one downhill podium in his career, but whose results in the discipline have been wildly erratic this season. “Downhill is nice. You get access to the hill and can really play with how the hill is pushing you. I’m trying to be more confident in it. Right now, we have a really strong top 10. I think that depth extends beyond the top 30.

“It shows that to be the winner or in the top three, you must put it all on the line and connect it from top to bottom. I think we all go into the race with a similar game plan. It comes down to each racer’s ability to execute that and allow themselves to make the correct movements. It’s not just about being in the right spot; it’s about moving through each spot.”

Despite nabbing his first World Cup victory last season in Val Gardena, Bryce Bennett still needs to streamline the winning formula. After a handful of subsequent top 12s, 22^nd was the statuesque American’s best result this season.

“It probably just made ski racing harder because now you know you can do it and have to figure out how to do it consistently. That’s been the battle of my life,” Bennett said, mentioning that the lower stakes in technical disciplines open the door to more consistency. “I love slalom and GS, but [part of the struggle in those events] is not that I could end up in the hospital very, very quickly. You can in all of them, but downhill especially. You have to overcome that fear factor, along with all the other stuff. Your feeling on the skis has to be right. You have to be there physically and mentally.”

Too many powerhouses in the house?

U.S. veteran Travis Ganong, who landed his first downhill podium since 2017 in Kitzbühel this season, believes that the lack of consistency in the discipline boils down to the stacked field.

“They’re just powerful skiers. They push really hard on their skis and are really balanced. That’s why downhill is downhill,” Ganong said. “That’s why when you look at the all-time winners in downhill, there haven’t been that many guys who have won that many races or that many guys who have always won. There are always different people winning different races. There’s not one guy who’s dominating. A couple of years ago, there were like ten downhills and, I think, eight or nine different winners. It’s not like the women’s tour or tech, where a dominating guy like Marcel Hirscher or Ted wins every race. There are so many good skiers. It depends on how you feel if you can take that risk, start position, wind, sun, everything.”