# United States & Canada Vacations Forums > Ski Country Forum >  >  Travis Ganong Top USA Downhill Finisher

## fins85258

*USA's Travis Ganongdraws praise for fifth-place finish in downhill*
KRASNAYAPOLYANA, Russia  There's at least one reason for the U.S. ski team tocelebrate on Sunday night.
Though BodeMiller's eighth-place finish in the men's downhill wasn't the medal performancemany expected, the breakout race of 25-year-old *Travis Ganong* certainly helped easethe blow. The Squaw Valley, Calif., native placed fifth with a time of 2.06.64,.31 seconds shy of the bronze-medal time of Norway's Kjetil Jansrud.

http://www.denverpost.com/olympics/ci_25098159/travis-ganong-future-u-s-downhill-skiing-is?source=rss

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## MIke R

Just watched his run ...... Really w ell done

84mph is insane

this course is nuts.......3500 vertical feet over 2 miles?......crazy

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## fins85258

I can't believe they don't have the Olympics on the cable channel where I am staying. Karen taped it for me to watch when I get home Thursday

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## MIke R

awful race conditions....warm temps have really softened the snow up.....

The snowboarders are really doing well....we still cannot believe  here in the resort that our local resident and good friend Bill Enos coached  Sage to a gold medal in Slopestyle.....he comes home today and back to his job of painting houses ( he painted ours last summer )....such is the life of an Olympic coach I guess...LOL

*Snowboarder Sage Kotsenburg stikes gold in slopestyle with his Holy Crail    * 

      Posted by Dan Egan    February  8, 2014 06:57 AM         






American Sage Kostenburg's  victory in the Olympic debut of slopestyle was a long time coming as he hadn't t won a contest in close to seven years, and the last time was  a small regional event when he was a teenager. 
  I never thought I would make it to the finals Kotsenburg said. I was just super relaxed and couldnt believe I was in the  finals.

*Kostenburg is coached by Bill Enos of Waterville Valley, NH.
*


  I turned to Bill just before my run and told him I was going to  throw a Japan 1620, and Bill said, 'Send it', so I did," Kostenburg  said.
  It just happened to be the first time he had performed the trick,  called the Holy Crail, in competition. His run thrilled snowboarding  enthusiasts because of the overall fluid nature and total expression of  his style. It was the first time all year that a major snowboarding  event was won with out throwing some sort of triple maneuver
  Kotsenburg's gold is a victory for snowboarding style and free  spirit, as many believe that even the X Games were becoming a bit too  cookie-cutter. 
  âStyle won today and that could change the direction of the sport,"  said Alysaa Roenigk, a senior writer for ESPN who focuses on the X  Games.
  The American boarder, who had to compete in the morning's semifinal  in order to qualify for the final, showed no sign of fatigue as he threw  down two strong runs in the final round. He scored the winning 93.50  score in his first run of the final.
  Staale Sandbech from Norway took the silver and X Games champion Mark  McMorris of Canada the bronze. All three medalists are 20 years old.
  Sandbech, of Norway, praised Kotsenburg for unique grabs on his  snowboard during his two final runs as well as his four-and-a-half  rotation spin off one of the jumps.
  "Snowboarding has no kind of limits - you can do bigger tricks and  you can do more spins and more flips. You can do different grabs you can  do more grabs," Sandbech said.Â "Sage obviously did some super  tech-creative grabs and a 1620 (rotation move)Â - he had such a sick  rail run.â
  McMorris, whoÂ broke a rib two weeks ago at the X Games in Aspen,  USA,Â had two clutch runs on Saturday. The first helped him get through  the semifinal round, the second bought him the bronze medal.
  Snowboarding made an Olympic statement today to the world and to  itself: "We are at Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and we have soul."

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## Rosemary

95.75 for S. White.  Different venue, and they iced up the venue, quite a bit.

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## MIke R

yeah I am watching.....that was a heluva routine for him

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## fins85258

KVITJELL, Norway (Feb. 28) - Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) knifed through rugged snow and limited visibility Friday to earn the first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup podium finish of his career with third in the first of two Kvitfjell downhills. Fresh off what was a career-best fifth at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games downhill in Sochi, Ganong wiped his goggles mid run as rain and wet snow pelted the fog-shortned course. Olympic super G champion Kjetil Jansrud of Norway and Austrian Georg Streitberger tied for a unique victory.

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