LAKE LOUISE, AB (Nov. 28) - The U.S. Ski Team's Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, NY) charged from the 62nd start position through heavy snow on the tricky Lake Louise downhill course to finish 12th in Saturday's World Cup race. Switzerland's Didier Cuche won to mark his 11th World Cup victory.

"I had a good run. I just hammered, skied clean, hit all the spots in the line and maybe got some good light before I went," Weibrecht said.

"I've never had a whole lot of success at Lake Louise. It's not a track I like all that much, so it was great to get a good one in out here."

It was the first downhill of the Audi FIS World Cup season. Rounding out the podium was Italy's Werner Heel, who finished second, and Carlo Janka of Switzerland in third.

Men's Alpine Head Coach Sasha Rearick was impressed for Weibrecht to have skied from the back of the pack to 12th.

"Andrew skied fantastically. He was very aggressive from top to bottom. He had a bobble on the bottom flats, but besides that it was great skiing from the back," Rearick said. "With a start number like that it wasn't easy and he did and amazing job."
The day of racing, however, was marred for much of the Team as TJ Lanning (Park City, UT) was injured when he crashed.
According to U.S. Ski Team Medical Director Richard Quincy, Lanning suffered an injury to his left knee. He was evacuated by helicopter from on-course to a clinic at the base of the mountain for preliminary observation and was transported to a hospital in Banff for further evaluation.

"What happened to TJ is a bummer. He's one of my really good buddies, so it definitely put a shadow over everything," Weibrecht said.

"The rest of the guys all ran right after TJ so it was really tough to put that out of their mind. It was a very long course hold and that was hard," Rearick added.

Following Weibrecht for the U.S. was Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) in 29th and Jeremy Transue (Hunter, NY) in 50th.

According to Rearick, to start after Lanning and finish so well was also exceptional.

"I am especially impressed that he was able to put TJ's injury out of his head when it came time to race," Rearick said. "I am very impressed with that performance."

The men move on to super G racing on Sunday. Racing will be live on UniversalSports.com as well as Universal Sports TV starting at 1:15 p.m. ET.
"I'm psyched for tomorrow. I think super G was going really well for me this summer and I'm going to stick to my plan," Weibrecht said.

Check out usskiteam.com, facebook.com/usskiteam and twitter.com/usskiteam for news from Lake Louise.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2010 AUDI FIS ALPINE WORLD CUP
Lake Louise, AB – Nov. 28, 2009
Men's Downhill
1. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 1:50.31
2. Werner Heel, Italy, 1:50.75
3. Carlo Janka, Switzerland, 1:50.93
4. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 1:50.98
5. Ambrosi Hoffmann, Switzerland, 1:51.07
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12. Andrew Weibrecht, Lake Placid, NY, 1:51.41
29. Bode Miller, Franconia, NH, 1:52.42
50. Jeremy Transue, Hunter, NY, 1:53.16
53. Marco Sullivan, Squaw Valley, CA, 1:53.31
60. Erik Fisher, Middleton, ID, 1:53.70
64. Steven Nyman, Sundance, UT, 1:54.38
71. Scott Macartney, Crystal Mountain, WA, 1:58.34
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DNF: TJ Lanning, Park City, UT; Travis Ganong, Squaw Valley, CA