SELVA DI VAL GARDENA, Italy — Dominik Paris is back.
The Italian skier dominated a World Cup downhill in Val Gardena on Saturday to claim his first victory in more than a year.
The 34-year-old Paris punched the air and smiled broadly after crossing the line almost half a second faster than two-time defending downhill standings leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and then faced a lengthy wait in the leader’s chair.
But as more and more skiers crossed slower than him, the outcome grew more likely and Paris’ smile grew broader.
With the 18th World Cup downhill win of his career, Paris moved level with Stephan Eberharter in third place on the all-time list. Only Franz Klammer (25) and Peter Müller (19) have more downhill wins than Paris.
Most of Paris’ wins came before he tore up his knee in a crash while training in January 2020.
PHOTOS: Paris wins Val Gardena downhill for first victory in more than a year. Kilde finishes second
He won three races afterward but his last victory came in Kvitfjell in March 2022. Since then, Paris had finished on the podium only once. He finished 11th in another downhill in Val Gardena on Thursday as the men’s World Cup speed season finally got underway, but was a paltry 55th in a super-G on Friday.
But a fast and ferocious run on the Saslong course saw Paris finish 0.44 seconds ahead of Kilde, who could only smile wryly and applaud from the winner’s chair. American skier Bryce Bennett - who won Thursday’s downhill - was third, 0.60 behind Paris.
“You see Dominik now is back where he belongs,” Kilde said. “He’s a great skier and of course he’s been struggling here for some years but when you ski the way he executed today it’s fun to see and it’s really fun for Italians to have a home victory.”
Paris was the only skier to clock under two minutes.
It also broke a sort of taboo for Italy on one of its home courses as the last Italian to win a downhill on the Saslong was Kristian Ghedina in 2001.
It was only the second downhill of the season after speed races in Beaver Creek, Colorado, were canceled a couple of weeks ago. Thursday’s race was rescheduled from the yet-to-be-run Zermatt-Cervinia cross-border event last month.
There are giant slalom races in nearby Alta Badia on Sunday and Monday for a series of five races in five days.
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