From Whistler, CAN
(November 29, 2024) – For the second straight day, Austria’s Florian Auer slid to a big victory in Whistler as part of the North American Cup opening races.
Auer opened up a commanding .94 second advantage over Canada’s Ryan Kuehn after the first heat, with Kuehn’s teammate Josip Brusic sitting in third as the only other slider with in a full second of the Austrian.
In the second heat Australia’s Nick Timmings put down a quick run to take the lead and then hold that spot after Brusic had trouble late in his second run.
Kuehn was able to pick up .24 on his first slide to take the lead from Timmings with Auer still to go.
Auer’s second effort wasn’t quite as fast as his first, but was more than enough to earn him the win by 1.29 over Kuehn, with Timmings in third.
Auer’s victory was his third straight in NAC action, while Kuehn’s silver was his first medal since the opening races of last season.
Timmings was the only other slider within two seconds of Auer. Israel’s Jared Firestone finished just over three seconds back in fourth, with Luxembourg’s Jeff Bauer in fifth and Brusic in sixth.
Canada once again put five athletes in the top ten. Jacob Coleman finished seventh, Sebastien Regnier in eighth, and Marc-Antoine Vigneault in ninth. Brayden Posyluzny finished a career-best 12th to round out the Canadian effort.
Dylan Burris was the top American in 11th. Lukas Kissell finished 13th, Tyler Lutz 14th, and Andrew Whittier-Neises 15th for the United States.
The North American Cup tour moves on to Park City for the next slate of races beginning December 3.
Results:
| Pos | Name | Nation | Bib | Start 1 | Start 2 | Run 1 | Run 2 | Finish |
| 1 | Florian Auer | AUT | 6 | 4.84 | 4.79 | 53.47 | 53.82 | 1:47.29 |
| 2 | Ryan Kuehn | CAN | 4 | 4.68 | 4.59 | 54.41 | 54.17 | 1:48.58 |
| 3 | Nicholas Timmings | AUS | 10 | 4.85 | 4.79 | 54.49 | 54.69 | 1:49.18 |
| 4 | Jared Firestone | ISR | 3 | 5.03 | 4.95 | 55.31 | 55.14 | 1:50.45 |
| 5 | Jeff Bauer | LUX | 5 | 5.08 | 4.97 | 55.41 | 55.59 | 1:51.00 |
| 6 | Josip Brusic | CAN | 2 | 4.64 | 4.63 | 54.46 | 56.66 | 1:51.12 |
| 7 | Jacob Coleman | CAN | 1 | 5.08 | 5.20 | 55.53 | 55.64 | 1:51.17 |
| 8 | Sebastian Regnier | CAN | 13 | 4.61 | 4.56 | 55.96 | 56.15 | 1:52.11 |
| 9 | Marc-Antoine Vigneault | CAN | 12 | 4.99 | 4.89 | 56.38 | 56.12 | 1:52.50 |
| 10 | Oren Milstein | ISR | 8 | 5.02 | 4.98 | 56.20 | 56.62 | 1:52.82 |
| 11 | Dylan Burris | USA | 15 | 4.84 | 4.97 | 56.52 | 57.12 | 1:53.64 |
| 12 | Brayden Posyluzny | CAN | 7 | 4.81 | 4.84 | 58.20 | 56.57 | 1:54.77 |
| 13 | Lukas Kissell | USA | 14 | 5.02 | 4.97 | 57.22 | 57.58 | 1:54.80 |
| 14 | Tyler Lutz | USA | 11 | 4.71 | 4.63 | 58.73 | 57.48 | 1:56.21 |
| 15 | Andrew Whittier-Neises | USA | 9 | 4.97 | 5.10 | 58.23 | 58.33 | 1:56.56 |