Passion for skiing began in Placer County at age 2
Olympic Valley, Calif. – Our very own, Palisades Tahoe and Stifel US Ski Team athlete, Bryce Bennett secured the first World Cup victory for a U.S. male Alpine skier in two years.
Competing in Val Gardena, Italy, on Thursday, the two-time Olympian defied the odds from bib No. 34, considering that the top-ranked skiers typically occupy the first 30 bibs. Bennett’s impressive performance resulted in a narrow victory, overtaking the reigning World Cup downhill season champion, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, by a mere three-hundredths of a second. The third spot went to world champion Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, trailing five hundredths behind.
Drought ends for U.S. men’s Alpine World Cup
This victory by Bennett brings an end to the longest U.S. men’s Alpine World Cup victory drought since the period from 1995 to 2000. Notably, Bennett had previously claimed the title of the most recent American man to win a World Cup at the same Val Gardena downhill in December 2021, which was his only previous World Cup podium.
As one of the tallest men on the circuit, standing at 6-foot-7, Bennett shared in an interview “I am speechless, we have been working really hard with a lot of good camps this summer and I have been showing good skiing but I just love it here. I changed the approach last year and this year and I am just so happy. I wanted a good run today and I just had to let it flow and trust myself.”
Local roots
Born and raised in Truckee CA, Bennett got his start shredding the slopes of Palisades Tahoe at two years old. He then joined Team Palisades Tahoe’s youth development pipeline, and by eight years old he decided he was going to race in the Olympics. Today, he has competed in the 2018 and 2022 Winter Games, and now proudly boasts two World Cup victories. Bennett is part of a legacy of American downhillers coming out of Palisades Tahoe including Daron Rahlves, Marco Sullivan, and Travis Ganong.
Stifel Palisades Tahoe Cup in February
The FIS World Cup returns to North Lake Tahoe at Palisades Tahoe from February 23-25, featuring the Stifel Palisades Tahoe Cup with Men’s Slalom and Giant Slalom events.
