Downhill racer Dominik Paris continues winning streak on home soil

Dominik Paris has become the first skier to win three consecutive downhill races on the Stelvio course.

The Italian won a shortened race on one of the World Cup's most demanding courses on Friday, defeating Switzerland's Beat Feuz and Austrian Matthias Mayer.

It was Paris' 13th downhill win, and fourth in Bormio. He also triumphed in 2017 and 2018, and won the first race of his career here, in 2012.

"Each race is a new challenge. I put everything on the track to do the best possible, you never know how it ends and this is the beauty of sport," Paris said.

The race replaced the downhill that was cancelled in another Italian resort, Val Gardena, last Saturday due to heavy snowfall.

WATCH | Dominik Paris becomes a four-time winner at Bormio:

Dominik Paris captures 4th World Cup gold in Bormio

5 years ago

Duration 2:48

Italian Dominik Paris became a four-time winner in Bormio after winning the World Cup men's downhill event.

While Friday's race was reduced to 2.95 kilometres, the regular full-length 3.23K Stelvio downhill is scheduled for Saturday.

Live coverage of the event resumes on Saturday at 5:30 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca. For more coverage of men's alpine, tune into Road to the Olympic Games on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.

• Add the CBC's official Alpine Skiing live streaming schedule to your calendar

Racing in cloudy conditions on a bumpy course, Paris attacked from top to bottom, pushing all the way as he came off the ideal race line several times to finish in one minute 49.56 seconds.

"It wasn't my best-ever run in Bormio, but for sure one of the most brutal ones. It was on the limit," said Paris, who won the super-G world title last season.

"I lost some time when I bumped against a gate," he added. "When you achieve these results, it's even more beautiful to look for the limit."

WATCH | A BOOTquet of questions with alpine skier Erik Read: 

A BOOTquet of questions with alpine skier Erik Read

5 years ago

Duration 1:24

Canadian alpine skier Erik Read answers questions that he's pulling out of a BOOTquet. What's that you ask? It's a boot bouquet. Spoiler: He used to pull his cat's tail.

Feuz, who led this season's downhill standings after winning the previous race in Beaver Creek, came up 0.39 seconds short, while Mayer trailed by 0.42.

The rest of the field, led by fourth-place Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, finished more than a second off the pace.

Benjamin Thomsen was 28th, Brodie Seger 31st, and James Crawford 50th for Canada

Austria's Vincent Kriechmayr, who won a super-G in Val Gardena last week, caught a bump at full speed and lost his left ski halfway down his run, but the Austrian avoided a crash.