Ultimately, the women’s downhill saw a final jump go from treacherous to smooth on Thursday. At least, Julia Mancuso described it as fairly palatable once changes were made following Daniela Merighetti being hurt by a tough jump, as the Associated Press reports.
Mancuso, 29, recorded the third fastest run in that training session; Austria’s Anna Fenninger notched the best time while Switzerland’s Fraenzi Aufdenblatten came in second.
“It was smooth,” Mancuso said of the last jump. “You’re going a little bit slower than most downhills and then it just shoots up. It feels more difficult than it is.”
Not very surprisingly, Merighetti opted against making another run with the tweaked final jump. She hurt both knees with her left possibly needing further examination, according to the AP. Laurenne Ross was the only one of three skiers who made that difficult initial run who elected to do so again with the revised version.
Maybe it wasn’t a flawless process, but Lara Gut notes that the course has come a long way from where it was during a test run in 2012.
“Now, it’s right,” Gut said. “They prepared a really nice downhill.”
