World Cup Racers to Watch

By Gordie Megroz
Published on January 2023

U.S. Athletes to Watch

Travis Ganong

Travis Ganong has been on the U.S. Ski Team for 17 years and has had much success. He’s won two World Cup downhill races, scored six top-ten World Cup results in 2016, and took silver in the downhill at the World Championships in 2015. This season, Ganong became the first American man to place third on the Hahnenkamm podium since 2014 and has a chance to medal in Aspen.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle

Part of the famous Cochran skiing family from Vermont, Ryan Cochran-Siegle’s mother, Barbara Ann, won gold in the slalom at the Sapporo Olympics in ‘72. Cochran-Siegle won silver in the super-G at last winter’s Olympics in Beijing and has had a decent start to this season, placing in the top ten in three World Cup downhills. Racing on home turf might be the advantage he needs to take a surprising victory in Aspen.

Bryce Bennett

Bryce Bennett’s season is off to a slow start, but the California native is capable of tremendous speed. He has five top-five results in World Cup downhills, including a win in Val Gardena, Italy in 2021. He’s also no stranger to success in Aspen, winning a Nor Am super-G race in 2012.

River Radamus

Though more of a giant slalom skier (he finished fourth in that event at the 2022 Olympics), Radamus has shown that he can hold his own in super-G. The Colorado native, who grew up right down the road in Vail, finished sixteenth at Beaver Creek in December—an impressive result given that he was the 57th skier to take on the chewed-up track.

Steven Nyman

Ski racing’s elder statesman knows the America’s Downhill™ course intimately. Forty-year-old Nyman has reached the podium eleven times on the World Cup, winning three downhill races. He’s been plagued by injuries the past several years, but he’ll be firing on all cylinders on home turf—particularly if he decides to retire and make the Aspen races his last hurrah.

International Athletes to Watch

Marco Odermatt

Marco Odermatt is on fire. The Swiss star began this season by reaching the podium in seven straight races, winning four of those contests. He captured the overall World Cup crown last season and has six super-G wins to his name, including two this season. He currently leads the World Cup super-G standings and will be a favorite to win the Aspen super-G. Odermatt will also try to break through and collect his first victory in downhill, an event in which he’s finished second in World Cup races six times.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde

With 17 wins (nine in downhill and eight in super-G), Kilde is the best speed skier on the World Cup circuit. This season, he’s won three of five downhill races and leads the World Cup downhill standings. The Norwegian athlete won the overall title in 2020 and could sweep the races in Aspen.

Vincent Kriechmayr

If anybody has a chance to upset Odermatt and Kilde, it’s Kriechmayr. The Austrian has won two downhills and a super-G this season, and won both the downhill and super-G races at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Kriechmayr also likes Colorado snow, having won a World Cup super-G in Beaver Creek in 2018.

Atle Lie McGrath

Though he races for Norway, Atle McGrath’s father, Felix, grew up in Vermont and competed as a member of the U.S. Ski Team in the 1980s. McGrath mostly specializes in tech events (he’s won two slalom races), but he also skis the occasional super-G and was fifth in the event at Beaver Creek this season. He’ll be a dark horse to medal in the super-G in Aspen.

Jack Crawford

Being back in North America may give Crawford the edge he needs to win his first World Cup race. The Canadian surprised many by finishing fourth in the downhill at last year’s Olympics in Beijing. This season, he’s coming into his own, having begun with a third in the World Cup downhill in Beaver Creek, and taking second in the downhill in Bormio, Italy. Still considered an outside threat, don’t be surprised to see Crawford atop the podium in Aspen.