Sawt Falasteen - Cochran-Siegle tops first Olympic downhill training

Cochran-Siegle, an Olympic super-G silver medallist in Beijing four years ago, clocked 1min 56.08sec down the Stelvio piste with which he said he had a love-hate relationship.

In-form Italian Giovanni Franzoni and Switzerland's Marco Odermatt were next fastest down the famed course.

"The snow is variable," Cochran-Siegle said. "They will work on that so it will get a little bit more consistent top to bottom, which will increase speed.

"I foresee some much better skiing going forward.

"And it's the first training run, too, a lot of guys are playing it out, some guys are pushing."

The American added of the piste, one of the most demanding on the circuit: "It's a love-hate relationship. I've had some great days here, some very humbling days.

"I know how relentless it can be. It's an awesome slope and awesome venue but you really have to earn it ski well."

Norway's Frederik Moeller was the first crash victim on the 3.4km-long course in cloudy conditions.

Moeller slid wide out of one turn into the netting. After treatment slopeside, he as eventually evacuated to hospital by helicopter.

There are second and third training runs scheduled for Thursday and Friday ahead of Saturday's actual downhill race.

Downhill also features as one of the disciplines in Monday's team combined event, ahead of the February 11 super-G, the second speed event.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST