The first Val Gardena descent: This is how it starts

On Wednesday evening at the team captains' meeting in Wolkenstein, the starting numbers for the first of the two downhill runs of the 56th Saslong Classic were announced.

14 December 2023

From: pm/det

The descent will be opened on Thursday at 11.45 a.m. by Canadian Alexander Cameron. Just like last year, the first Val Gardena downhill run will take place as a “sprint race” on a shortened route. The start house is located at the Super-G start at 2.010 meters above sea level.

The first runner from the narrow circle of favorites is the Swiss Marco Odermatt. The overall World Cup winner, who was on the podium once last year as second in the shortened downhill run in Val Gardena, has the number 6 on his chest. Immediately after the Swiss, who opened the top group, local hero Florian Schieder plunged into the valley with number 7.

The top favorite comes with the 10th

Top favorite and Saslong specialist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde tackles the first descent with start number 10. The Norwegian is fighting for his sixth victory at the foot of the Sassolungo on Thursday. Behind Kilde are four other hotshots: the Italian Mattia Casse (No. 11), the German Romed Baumann (No. 12), the Ultner powerhouse Dominik Paris (No. 13) and the Canadian James Crawford (No. 14). Fight for the day's victory.

“Defending champion” Vincent Kriechmayr from Austria, who won the shortened descent last year, is wearing number 15. We can also look forward to the appearance of Jared Goldberg, who was fastest in training. The US boy leaves the starting house as the 20th runner.