Top Five Fridays: March 14, 2025
Looking out at the majestic Mt. Bachelor. This week, the local effort to purchase the mountain from POWDR Corp. took a big hit. We’ll tell you all about it in highlight #3. Image: Mt. Bachelor on Facebook
#1:FIS Alpine World Cup Recap: The Men Bounce Back as Mikaela Shiffrin Breaks Yet Another World Record:
Here it is: the race that gave Shiffrin the most World Cup podiums ever for any alpine skier.
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the March 14, 2025 edition! This week in ski news, we once again have back to back competitive results to discuss before moving on to two very interesting stories. The first covers the most recent news from Mt. Bachelor, while the second discusses a cheating scandal in the ski jumping community. We’ll bring you up to speed with those two stories shortly, but first, let’s talk World Cup Alpine Racing.
This week, we’re going to mix things up a little bit by starting our coverage with the men. If you read along last Friday, then you already know that the boys had a bit of a rough go of it two weeks ago. Fortunately though, they bounced back over the course of the last seven days with a trio of speed races playing into their strengths and leading to numerous laudable results. In Kvitfjell last weekend, things got started with a Downhill race in which two Americans finished in the top 10. Leading the charge for Team USA was Bryce Bennett with a 7th place finish, followed by Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 10th. Behind them, Wiley Maple joined the fun with a 21st place finish and Sam Morse rounded things out in 24th. A day later, things cooled down just a little bit as Ryan Cochran-Siegle led the way for the American men in another Downhill race, this time placing 19th. Joining him in the points were Kyle Negomir in 25th, and Jared Goldberg in 30th. Finally, rounding out the competitive week for the boys was a Super G race, where a pretty remarkable six men found themselves in the points. Leading the charge was once again Ryan Cochran-Siegle in 11th, followed by Jared Goldberg in 12th, River Radamus in 18th, Kyle Negomir and Bryce Bennett tied for 21st, and Sam Morse in 29th. After what was certainly a down week two weeks ago, it’s safe to say that the men bounced back in brilliant fashion this past week. From here, they’ll have just one more stop on the tour in Hafjell, Norway for a Giant Slalom and Slalom race this weekend before the finals in Sun Valley.
On the women’s side of things, the tour first stopped in Are, Sweden last weekend for a Giant Slalom and a Slalom race, before continuing on to La Thuile, Italy on Tuesday where two Super G’s and a Downhill were to be held. Unfortunately the Downhill was cancelled, while the second of the two Super G’s is currently underway at the time of this writing. As such, we’ll cover the first three events of the week here.
In the first of these three races, a Giant Slalom, the U.S. Women once again did what they’ve done all season long: pack the points. At the top of the American results was Paula Moltzan with a 6th place finish, followed by Nina O’Brien in 11th, Elisabeth Bocock in 14th, and AJ Hurt in 19th. The best, and most historic, result of the week came a day later in the Slalom event though, as Mikaela Shiffrin won the bronze medal In doing so, Shiffrin claimed yet another world record. This time, she became the alpine ski racer with the most World Cup podiums of all time, having surpassed another one of Ingemar Stenmark’s records. Also celebrating success in that race were Paula Moltzan in 6th and AJ Hurt in 20th. Finally, in the last race of the week, rapidly rising star Lauren Macuga earned herself a 5th place finish while Breezy Johnson took home 27th. Looking ahead, the women now have just the final Super G race in La Thuile later today before they too will head to Sun Valley, Idaho for this season’s World Cup finals, from March 20-27th. To preview that schedule of events, click here.
#2: Freeride World Tour Stop #5 Recap: Lily Bradley Shines While Men’s Ski Division Cancelled in Fieberbrunn:
Up next in ski news this week is our follow up to last week’s Freeride World Tour coverage in which we briefly previewed the Fieberbrunn event. Unfortunately, this highlight isn’t going to be quite what we were hoping for when we left off last week, as things didn’t quite go to plan. As you’ll recall, last Friday we shared the news that the forecast for the Wildseeloder (pronounced “Vill-Tee-Loader”) face at Feiberbrunn looked questionable, so event organizers decided to run the men's and women's snowboard divisions, and the women’s ski division last Friday, with hopes to run the Men’s Ski division later this week. Unfortunately, the weather forecast only worsened, ultimately forcing the men’s ski division to be cancelled. It’s certainly a disappointing outcome, as not only was this the last chance for athletes below the cut line to improve their scores ahead of the final stop, but the Wildeseeloder is also traditionally one of the most exciting stops on the tour each season. Still, it’s a sport in which the weather always gets the final say, and all things considered it’s been a successful season in that regard, with only one division at one venue being called off so far.
All that said, it’s not as if the stop was a complete bust. While the ski men were unable to run, the ski women were, and for Lily Bradley, it made all the difference. When Bradley made their debut on the tour two seasons ago, they showed incredible promise, earning a first and third place finish across five events. Then, the following year, they got injured after the first event and were forced to take the season off. Last year they returned to the tour via a wildcard and were able to earn a 6th place finish overall. This year though, results were harder to come by as Lily’s best finish so far had been a 5th place in Kicking Horse. As a result, they were decidedly below the cut line coming into Fieberbrunn. As we all know in this sport though, it can be anyone’s day on any given day. With a need for a first place finish to make finals, Lily was able to embrace a “might as well send it” mentality and accomplished the mission. Despite what were variable, if not firm conditions, Bradley put down the run of the day, taking the first roller by far the largest and capping an otherwise solid run with a massive cliff drop down low. On a day when Bradley needed it all, they decided to push the limits a bit and were ultimately rewarded.
In addition to Bradley’s antics, the other highlight of the day was from FWT legend Nadene Wallner who had previously won the Fieberbrunn stop in both 2013 and 2014, as well as earning a silver in the 2016 event. This year, Wallner made an appearance as a wild card athlete, and like Bradley, didn’t feel pressure from the cut line. As a result, Wallner also opted to send it, and also stomped a massive air off the same bottom feature as Bradley. Like Lilly, Nadine was rewarded adequately, taking home the silver medal in Fieberbrunn for a second time.
All in all, while we would have loved to see the ski men compete at this year’s Fieberbrunn stop, sometimes it just isn’t in the cards. This year was one of those times. Still, there’s more to look forward to as the season is set to culminate at the Xtreme Verbier event, on the infamous Bec des Rosses face. That event is scheduled for a weather window of March 22-30th, and you can be sure we’ll let you know a specific day as soon as we can. In the meantime, click here to watch a recap of the Fieberbrunn event.
#3: The Local Effort to Buy Mt. Bachelor is on the Rocks:
Despite plenty of interest and support, it doesn’t look good for the locals looking to buy Mt. Bachelor. Image: Mt. Bachelor on Facebook
Moving onto our non-competitive news segment this week, we start with a bit of a disappointing update from the Mt. Bachelor community, where locals’ hopes to purchase the mountain from POWDR Corp seem to have taken a pretty substantial hit. Just as a quick reminder to set the context for this story, way back in August, Killington announced that a group of local investors had bought the resort from POWDR. Alongside that news was the announcement that the corporation was also looking to sell three other resorts: Mt. Bachelor, Eldora, and Silverstar. Thus, the local movement to purchase Mt. Bachelor was born.
In the months that followed, there has been plenty of interest and effort amongst the locals to follow Killington’s lead, hoping to organize and ultimately buy the resort. Unfortunately, this week we’ve learned that Mt. Bachelor Community Inc (MBCI), the organization looking to purchase the resort, was unable to submit a bid to POWDR before the deadline. As such, as it stands, the locals will not be buying the resort.
It’s a significant blow to the group who had quickly gained a tremendous amount of support and were reportedly in serious conversations with financial backers. Ultimately though, MBCI co-founder Dan Cochrane lamented that other bidders likely got advanced notice of the upcoming sale as he suspects that POWDR had shopped around a bit in an effort to gauge interest in the resort. As such, those potential buyers would have had more time to prepare their bids. Locals, on the other hand, only learned of the opportunity as a result of the Killington sale and were left scrambling to organize. Still, despite the setback and long odds, Cochrane remains committed to the community effort to purchase the resort until a sale to another buyer is officially announced. Even then, he hopes the new ownership group will be interested in working with local leaders to ensure the mountain remains tightly tied to the community. To learn more about this disappointing news, check out the coverage from Central Oregon Daily.
#4: Scandal Rocks FIS Ski Jumping World as Norwegians Found to be Using Altered Suits:
Finally, we round things out this week with a story that we might not be sharing, had we not discussed the surprisingly intricate world of ski jumping suits just this Fall. In that edition of Top Five Fridays, from November 22nd, we learned about how the FIS is requiring suits to contain a microchip, allowing their usage to be tracked to help enforce the rule. Seems oddly specific, right? Well, to put a long story short, the rule was put in place due to how precise ski jumping suits are. In the sport of ski jumping, a new suit compared to one that’s been used several times can make a world of difference. As a result, there’s been a pattern of athletes from affluent nations using far more suits per year than those from nations with less funding, giving them a competitive advantage. In an effort to curtail the issue, the FIS capped the number of suits an athlete can use in a season. We bring all of this up as a preface to this week’s news only to emphasize one thing: ski jumping suits are incredibly precise pieces of equipment, where even a factor such as multiple uses can have an impact on results. Enter, this week’s scandal.
Last Sunday, the FIS discovered that the suits of two Norwegian jumpers had been manipulated ahead of the large hill event at the World Championships. The manipulation in question? The suits contained reinforced thread which made them stiffer, and therefore more aerodynamic. As shocking as it might be that such a fine detail could create a significant competitive advantage, we’re equally as shocked that the FIS was able to catch the alteration at all. While we don’t know the details regarding how the discovery was made or how significant the alteration was, we do know one thing that confirms the accusations: the Norwegian staff has fessed up to the transgression without denial.
On Monday of this week, it was announced that coach Magnus Brevik and equipment manager Adrian Livelten had been fired, with assistant coach Thomas Lobben joining them on Tuesday. In the words of coach Brevik, “I have nothing else to say except that perhaps we got carried away inside our world championship bubble, crossed the line completely – and we apologize for that.” As for the athletes themselves - Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang - it’s unknown whether or not they were aware of the alterations. According to Forfang, he had no idea of the alterations, saying, “It is important for me to emphasize that I was never aware that my suit had been manipulated. I have always had great trust in the staff.” If that’s the case, it’s a heartbreaking situation for both athletes, and Lindvik in particular as he’d just won a silver medal in the big hill event, which he was rightfully disqualified from after discovery of the alteration was made. All told, it’s a bit of a wild story, and further proof of just how intricate these ski jumping suits really are. For more on this, check out the report from CNN.