By Simon Jennings
YANQING, China (Reuters) – Aleksander Aamodt Kilde’s rivals at the Beijing Olympics were quick to hail him as the man to beat in the men’s downhill after Friday’s second practice session, but the Norwegian himself is determined to take things one step at a time.
Kilde was the fastest man down on a windy day at Yanqing Alpine Centre, finishing in one minute 43.72 seconds to set the stage for a thrilling battle with overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland in Sunday’s race.
Kilde leads the World Cup standings in downhill and super-G and is Norway’s best hope of winning a second successive men’s downhill Olympic gold, especially with Odermatt still coming to terms with the course.
“We’re good friends for sure, as well as rivals,” said Odermatt, who finished well back in the pack after kicking off the delayed session.
“We have a little battle on the world tour but I think the Olympics is different and he’s definitely the bigger favourite than me for the downhill.
“I hope (I can challenge Kilde) but first I have to find another two or three seconds and that won’t be easy.”
Austrian Matthias Mayer, the reigning Olympic super-G champion and downhill gold medallist at the Sochi Games in 2014, also marked Kilde out as the big favourite.
“It is close after him, but he is very fast,” Mayer said.
Kilde had the better of the conditions after starting at number 21 and coming down the course as the wind was dying down.
“We’ll see,” the 29-year-old said, when asked about his chances of winning gold.
“Everything can happen, especially when you have weather like this. It’s not that it’s going to be easy. It’s never easy to win an Olympic gold medal. Everything is possible though.”
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Norway had never won an Olympic gold in the men’s downhill — the sport’s blue riband event — until the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 when Aksel Lund Svindal stormed to victory ahead of compatriot Kjetil Jansrud for a Norwegian one-two.
Although Svindal has retired, Kilde’s form means the Norwegians are still very much the team to beat in Beijing.
“We are (confident). Fake it till you make it,” Jansrud said with a laugh when asked if they would top the podium again.
Odermatt leads second-placed Kilde by 375 points in the overall World Cup standings and the Norwegian is relishing the chance of renewing their rivalry on the biggest stage of all.
“It’s going to be a battle the whole Olympics,” Kilde said.
He has won three World Cup downhills this season, including the two January classics at Wengen and Kitzbuehel, and Jansrud backed his team mate to deliver in Beijing despite the extra pressure of being seen as the favourite.
“He’s strong enough to do it,” Jansrud said. “I would say the pressure is on but he handled that great during the World Cup season and I don’t think there’ll be any change now.
“Aleksander’s quality as a skier speaks to him being able to solve the problem of coming into a place where you haven’t skied before … and we saw that today.”
(Reporting by Simon Jennings; additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Ken Ferris)
