Justin Murisier (SUI) claimed a maiden World Cup victory of his career by beating compatriot Marco Odermatt by two-tenths of a second in the opening men's downhill race of the Audi FIS World Cup season at Beaver Creek.
Wearing bib number three, Murisier set the benchmark with a time of 1:40:04, a time which did not initially appear to be too much for the experienced field of skiers to handle – but it proved too fast even for Odermatt, who began the defence of his Crystal Globe with a second-place finish on Friday.
"I was waiting four years for such a moment to happen," a jubilant Murisier told FIS. "I had a lot of surgeries, a lot of injuries – again this summer, a knee injury with surgery.
"I was fighting and still dreaming and trusting myself. I am so happy."
It was Murisier's second ever downhill race at Beaver Creek – the first being a 50th-place finish in 2022, showing how far the 32-year-old has come in the last two years.
"I really tried to stay really low and not do too much and to go as straight as possible without taking risks, because we know these last two jumps are a bit dangerous. But everything went well so I am quite happy," he said.
"I am also lucky to have a team-mate like Marco who is winning, and so I always have him to compare myself to in training. He helped me a lot so I want to thank him for that."
Murisier's winning run was largely error free, and it initially appeared as though that would be the case for Odermatt, who attacked the famous Birds of Prey track early on.
Odermatt looked set to dethrone his countryman as the fastest skier of the day, but a line error on the penultimate turn cost him in his first speed outing of the season.
"It was a solid run, not my best yet but I did two mistakes. The first one, I didn't feel it on the top, I was just not that fast on the flat part, so I was already a little bit behind,” Odermatt told FIS.
"Then I had a really good middle part, and then another mistake in the second-last jump; too far, not in a good direction, so I think I lost the victory there."
Despite not winning the opening race, the course is still a special one for the 27-year-old.
"It was my first World Cup victory here in Beaver Creek, exactly five years ago today. So it's always great to come back here, we love to race here. For me it's the best downhill we have on tour."
Miha Hrobat (SLO), meanwhile, finished third to claim a place on a World Cup podium for the first time in his career, having recorded a previous best of seventh in the downhill.
Asked if his impressive run had come as a surprise, Hrobat said: "Not really because I was skiing very well the whole season now in preparation, and also in the training run. So maybe it's a little bit (of a surprise), but I knew that I could do it so I'm very happy."
On what had made the difference, Hrobat added: "It's a little bit of a lot of things. The whole team changed. Atomic did a really good job with some new skis, I really like them. They give me more confidence to attack the turn from the start. All in all, all the things have worked out better than last year.”
Last year’s downhill season saw plenty of big duels between Odermatt and Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA), but that was not to be the case on Friday as Sarrazin could only muster a ninth-place finish; crossing the line more than a second behind Murisier.
The Alpine action continues at Beaver Creek with men's super-G on Saturday 7 December.
