Team USA repeats success in final downhill race of IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals

Three-time Paralympic medalists Mark Bathum (Mercer Island, Washington) and guide Cade Yamamoto (Quincy, Washington) stayed golden on Wednesday to close out downhill racing at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals in Aspen, Colorado. The duo dominated the men’s visually impaired division with their second straight victory to catalyze a three-medal performance for Team USA.

"It’s great snow because you can really hold an edge on it," Bathum said. "It’s a terrific course, great hill preparation and a fantastic hill to run the race on so all in all, it was really fun for us."

Bathum and Yamamoto rode off their success from Tuesday’s win to the top of the podium again in the second downhill race contested in Aspen. They defeated world champion Mac Marcoux and guide BJ Marcoux of Canada (1:12.81) en route to gold with a time of 1:12.04. The podium mirrored that of yesterday with Russia’s Ivan Frantsev and guide German Agranovskii claiming the third spot.

Paralympians Stephanie Jallen (Harding, Pennsylvania) and Laurie Stephens (Wenham, Massachusetts) flashed back-to-back silver medals to complete the downhill medal haul for Team USA. Jallen (1:18.90) made it a tight race with France’s Marie Bochet in the women’s standing class, finishing just over two-tenths of a second behind the Paralympic and world champion (1:18.66). Bochet, who’s dominated the world cup circuit this season, punctuated her overall downhill title win yesterday with another victory to remain unbeaten.

"A lot of it has to do with my mindset with the fact that I’m getting older now and have a little more race experience under my belt," Jallen said. "I didn’t win today but for me to be this close [to Marie], that was a personal win for me. It really raised my confidence and I was really happy to know that I can get close to her and maybe even beat her in the future."

In the women’s sitting race, Stephens closed in on German Paralympic champion Anna Schaffelhuber (1:20.89), finishing just .17 of a second from victory with a time of 1:21.06. Germany completed the podium with Anna-Lena Forster taking third in 1:22.62.

Podium performances weren’t the only strong efforts for Team USA. Competing in his first world cup of the season, Josh Elliott (Yakima, Washington) finished fourth in the men’s sitting class ahead of U.S. teammate Stephen Lawler (Burlington, Vermont) in fifth. Canadian world champion Kurt Oatway (1:12.93) raced away with the win as Austria’s Roman Rabl took second (1:14.43) and Japan’s Paralympic champion Akira Kano was third (1:14.91).

Danelle Umstead (Park City, Utah) and guide Rob Umstead (Park City, Utah) finished just off of the podium in the women’s visually impaired race with a time of 1:25.38. Millie Knight and guide Brett Wild (1:19.70) led a second consecutive British sweep.

New Zealand’s Adam Hall (1:14.71) rose from third place yesterday to upset Austria’s Paralympic champion Markus Salcher (1:14.81) and Russia’s world champion Aleksey Bugaev (1:14.91) in a tight finish.

Super-G will mark the final races of the world cup finals in Aspen on Thursday and Friday with more than 50 athletes from 17 countries competing for overall titles. For updates, follow U.S. Paralympics on Facebook and Twitter with results available on the IPC website.

For more information, please contact Brianna Tammaro, U.S. Paralympics, at 719-866-2068 or Brianna.Tammaro@usoc.org.

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