Svindal leads 2 Americans in Val Gardena downhill training
VAL GARDENA, Italy (AP) Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway led two Americans in the opening training session Wednesday for a World Cup downhill on the classic Saslong course.
Aiming to extend his perfect record after winning the opening two downhills this season, Svindal clocked 1 minute 59.34 seconds for a 0.23-second lead over Steven Nyman.
Travis Ganong was third, 0.42 behind.
Svindal, the two-time overall World Cup champion, has won three super-Gs on the Saslong but never the downhill.
Nyman's only three career wins came in this race, including last year. He's attempting to match the record of four downhill victories on the Saslong shared by Austrian legend Franz Klammer and Italian standout Kristian Ghedina.
Another training session is scheduled for Thursday, followed by the super-G race Friday and the downhill race Saturday.
