Norvegian Aksel Svindal took the first place in the alpine skiing world cup opening in Soelden on last weekend. Svindal, who skis with Atomic, won this tight race with time 2.17,87. Aksel Svindal won the whole cup and super-G on last year and he seems to continue with same goals on this year.

Second place was taken by American Ted Ligety with time 2.18,19 and the third one was Finnish Kalle Palander with time 2.18,26. Kalle performed almost perfect skiing with a couple of mistakes in the beginning of the track, but it was not enough to win Ligety. I was a bit surprised with Palander’s third place because as Kalle says, training season has been difficult.

American Bode Miller was 17th. after the first round but finally climbed to the fifth place. It will be interesting to see if Miller is going to stay among the top skiers.