At some point, ski racer Bryce Bennett had performed all the poses: looking doubtfully into the TV cameras, sticking out your tongue, stretching your arms up in prayer, please, dear alpine god, don’t let anyone beat my time. Of course, Bennett also had the surfer greeting, thumb and little finger formed into two horns in his repertoire, as it should be for a Californian. And at some point the 29-year-old just sat there as if he couldn’t understand what he had just done.
Bennett did not get bored, of course, because only now came the well-wishers: the colleagues from the US team, of course, the drivers from the midfield, in which Bennett had spent some time of his skiing life. The industry leaders also paid their respects, first and foremost the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who slid out of the course by a huge margin at halfway through the race. The Frenchman Blaise Giezendanner even tried to lift Bennett in the air – a pointless undertaking given his height of 2.01 meters and a competition weight of 100 kilograms. Steve Nyman, 39, gave his teammate a couple of cheerfully intended blows, right straight, left hook. It was the only setback that Bryce Bennett from Truckee, California, suffered on the day of departure in Val Gardena.
Skiing is such a frustrating sport, Bennett later explained when he gave his first audience in the finish area as a World Cup winner. “You will be disappointed most of the time,” he said, probably bearing in mind those races in which he narrowly failed, four times fourth in the World Cup, for example. Presumably he was also thinking of the meanness of his sport: the ice slopes, on which every blow is bad, the centrifugal forces, the tinkering with skis, boots and edges, the weather, a driving mistake that lets everything fall apart – a race, sometimes also one Career. Alpine sport, especially downhill, is a puzzle with tens of thousands of pieces that riders ponder for years even though they know they will never completely solve it. “And then,” said Bennett on Saturday, “you have a day like today.” As if it were as compelling as an excellent cheese dumpling dish in one of the restaurants in Val Gardena.
Bennett loves the thrill – including jumping off high cliffs
Bennett is someone who stands out in the World Cup, they call him Big Bird because of his stature. He likes to laugh a lot, also at himself, until he was recognized for his successes, but it took: “Actually, skiing is the last sport I should have chosen,” he said now in Val Gardena – and laughed. With its long legs it is great to play basketball, less chasing through curves on long ice slopes. But because all of his family were skiers and his parents worked at the Squaw Valley resort, Bennett also went skiing, on the slopes, especially off-road. “My whole life has always revolved around who jumps off the highest cliff, who does the stupidest thing,” he said now. After graduating from high school, he had enough of this complicated sport for a year, then he made it to the national team. That’s what attracts him about the descent to this day, “he once said:” That you fear a little for your life every time. “
Bennett first noticed six years ago, also in Val Gardena, with a high start number and sixth place. The Americans have always liked the Saslong slope, the snow here is sometimes more aggressive than in the USA, so compact that the edges of the ski bite into the surface with small movements. And with the notorious waves on the Saslong, Bennett enjoys a special knowledge advantage: He used to compete in BMX races for eight or nine years, where they almost only iron over waves on small wheels, as they do in Val Gardena on the Ciaslat meadow. “I know exactly how to generate speed on terrain where others think you can’t be fast there,” said Bennett. With its long legs, it is often quicker on the ground between waves, and the longer the skis are on the ground, the more likely the skiers will be able to glide. “So far, I had only always lost the races here because I couldn’t take the speed up to the Ciaslat,” said Bennett, on the sliding sections. Eternal departure puzzle.
Career highlight: Simon Jocher flies to eighth place for the first time in a World Cup in perfect jumping position.
(Photo: Francis Bompard / Zoom / Getty)
A turning point, said his team-mate Steve Nyman on Saturday, was a conversation five years ago. Nyman was already one of the more successful downhill skiers back then, he also won his three World Cup runs in Val Gardena, he too is slim and tall, like Bennett. At the time, he suggested to the newcomer to switch to Nyman’s ski brand: Then they could work together on a ski boot that would make it easier for taller skiers to be even faster. Bennett had turned down such an offer before; two times, also one lesson from the World Cup, one should avoid such mistakes. So Bennett changed the outfitter, he also hired Leo Mussi, a service man from South Tyrol who had already prepared the skis for Nyman and Kristian Ghedina. Bennett now said that Mussi took him in “like a second father.” In addition, Mussi conveniently resides in Val Gardena, “he just knows what material is fast here,” said Nyman. In the end, it’s sometimes worth more than the sleekest suit from the wind tunnel.
In any case, Bennett used his fast skis for the first time on Saturday to be quick from the start, and thanks to the Ciaslat he bounced so smoothly, “I’ve rarely seen that,” said Romed Baumann, 35 – who has already been in Val Gardena was a guest. Baumann botched the passage this time, he finished 18th. For this, Josef Ferstl and Simon Jocher fulfilled the Olympic standard: Ferstl in ninth, Jocher even in eighth, by far his best result in the World Cup.
It will be a hard-fought Olympic winter, not only the Austrians, Swiss and Germans, the Americans are also getting better and better on the downhill. “Sometimes we lack confidence in how good we are,” said Bennett on Saturday. Two days ago he had reprimanded his team-mate Ryan Cochran-Siegle for sometimes not believing in his huge abilities.
Two days later, Bryce Bennett had his big day.