Following Miller for the U.S. Ski Team was Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, Calif.), who finished 13th, and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) who was 14th. Both came from the back of the pack with Ganong starting 79th and Weibrecht 68th in a field of 94.
With his finish, Ganong earned a start spot from the Team to compete Saturday in what will be the first World Cup start of his career.
Along with Miller, Ganong and Weibrecht, Saturday's U.S. Ski Team downhill starters also include Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley, Calif.), Scott Macartney (Crystal Mountain, Wash.), Steven Nyman (Provo, Utah), TJ Lanning (Park City, Utah), Erik Fisher (Middleton, Idaho), and Jeremy Transue (Hunter, N.Y.). Sullivan, Miller, Macartney, Nyman, Lanning, Weibrecht, Fisher, Transue and Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) will be starting in Sunday's super G.
John Kucera (Calgary, Alberta) was the top Canadian Friday, finishing fourth. Kucera, the reigning World Downhill champion, today’s training with a time of 1:51.63 and was the only Canadian in the top 10.
“I skied strong. I addressed the issues that needed to be addressed. I think I skied much better than Wednesday. Tomorrow, the biggest thing will be to be more aggressive,” said Kucera, who has two career World Cup super-G podiums in Lake Louise including a win in 2006.
“I have a lot of work to do to get really aggressive and I need to find a little bit of a straighter line. I will sit down with the coaches and we will go through the video and see where the time was lost. I feel good and things are ready to get in the right direction. I feel strong confident and comfortable,” Kucera said.
The second Canadian who made a top 20 today was the 2008-09 overall Coupe Nor-Am Cup champion Louis-Pierre Hélie (Berthierville, Quebec), ranking 19th with a time of 1:52.90, ahead of Erik Guay (Mont-Tremblant, Quebec), who finished 21st with a time of 1:52.91. Tyler Nella (Toronto, Ontario), training to race on the World Cup for the first time in Lake Louise, finished with a time of 1:53.75 ranking 41st. Robbie Dixon (Whistler, British Columbia), the fastest Canadian in the prior training session, placed 51st with a time of 1:53.92 followed closely by teammate Jan Hudec (Calgary, Alberta), who finished 53rd with a time of 1:53.95. Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Invermere, British Columbia) did not record an official time after missing a gate.
