Australian alpine skiers Jono Brauer and Craig Branch have produced excellent runs in men’s Super G today down the Dave Murray run at Whistler.

In the starting field of 64, Brauer (30th) and Branch (29th) produced technically sound runs down the challenging course to join only 45 athletes that completed the course

Norwegian alpine skier Aksel Lund Svindal continued his excellent Olympic Games with the gold medal, having already taken out the silver medal in the men’s downhill last Monday.

Svindal, who is the reigning world super-combined champion and produced an exceptional run down the Whistler slopes to clock a time of 1:30.34 over the 2,076 metre course.

The United States claimed both the silver and bronze medals through Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht, with Miller now having won two medals also after his bronze medal in the downhill.

Brauer said he enjoyed the course, despite slower conditions.

“The course was good, it’s the Dave Murray Downhill, it’s one of the most challenging courses in the world, it was quite rough in sections and got slower as the race went on making it harder for me to put down a better time,” Brauer said.

“I made a few mistakes and if I could do it again I would make some changes.

“Overall just getting to the Olympics was a real challenge with my knee, and with limited training all year, I was just happy to get down and be reasonably competitive with the guys who train every day.”

Brauer also announced that this would be the end of the road in his skiing career.

“My knee is at the point now that doctors have advised me that it’s time to hang up the boots, so this is the final curtain on my racing career.

“I am very happy for this to be my last race, competing on the big stage in great weather with my family here is a great way to finish.”

Branch said he was satisfied with his competition in Vancouver despite the end part of the course being quite soft.

It was super intense and bumpy out of the start gate, but I was told I put down a good top section,” Branch said.

“The middle and bottom sections really started to get soft from the sun baking the course, it felt like a spring afternoon back home in Australia. This makes it really hard to carry your speed and is where I lost a lot of my speed.


“Although I have placed higher at the Games before, this was some of my best Olympic skiing.  Every year the competition gets tougher, so to be reasonably competitive with the best I am happy.”

David Polglase
AOC Vancouver