Beaver Creek, Colo. • Aksel Lund Svindal started first and the hard-charging Norwegian put down such a blistering run that no one could catch him as he captured a World Cup downhill race Saturday.
Svindal took a calculated risk by picking the No. 1 spot the night before, believing the snow conditions might hold up better. He finished in a time of 1 minute, 40.46 seconds to beat Switzerland's Beat Feuz by 0.15 seconds. Thomas Dressen finished third to give Germany its first World Cup men's downhill podium spot since 2004.
The 34-year-old Svindal sat in the leader's box as racer after racer couldn't match his line.