Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria waves to the crowd after his super-G run at the Birds of Prey World Cup on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at Beaver Creek.
Christopher Dillmann/Vail Daily
BEAVER CREEK — After competing at Copper Mountain’s Stifel Copper Cup over Thanksgiving weekend, professional Alpine skiers only had to travel about 20 miles west to Beaver Creek for the 2025 Stifel Birds of Prey World Cup.
While only the men are featured at the competition, it still provided riveting and must-watch skiing ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
On Friday, the men competed in the super-G at Beaver Creek. Originally slated for Saturday morning, the race was moved to Friday morning due to a strong snowstorm making its way across the region.
With less than ideal skiing conditions and low visibility, only 25 athletes were able to put down a time on the super-G course.
Canadian James Crawford was the first athlete to take to the venue, plunging his skis into the snow and trying to record the fastest time in the one-run format. Crawford posted a time of 1 minute, 8.07 seconds, setting the tone for the rest of the field.
Crawford maintained his spot at the top of the leaderboard until Austria’s Stefan Eichberger was able to cruise down the slope and record a time of 1:08.05. Eichberger didn’t hold the lead for long, as Thursday’s downhill champion, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, stormed into first with a blistering run of 1:08.00.
Wanting to add another World-Cup super-G win to his robust resume, Odermatt sat in the lead for a couple of runs before Raphael Haaser of Austria turned the competition up a notch by recording a time of 1:07.80.
Haaser’s run proved to be a catalyst as, shortly after he exited the race venue, Norway’s Fredrik Moeller vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with a new best time of 1:07.33. But it was Vincent Kriechmayr of Austria who ultimately claimed the 2025 Birds of Prey super-G title.
Battling wind and swirling snow that cut into his visibility, Kriechmayr carved his way down the course to post a time of 1:06.77. With the race being halted after 30 competitors due to worsening snowfall, his time held, securing the Austrian his first win of the 2025-26 World Cup season and the 10th super-G victory of his career.
Marco Odermatt competes in the men’s super-G at the Birds of Prey World Cup on Friday.Ben Roof/Vail Daily
“My skiing was pretty good,” Kriechmayr said. “The race was pretty tough. … I think the first 14 racers had similar conditions, but after the break it was not fair anymore. I have to tell the truth. You want to have similar conditions for everyone. I am happy about my skiing.”
Moeller finished 0.56 seconds behind Kriechmayr in second place, while Haaser took the final spot on the podium at 1.03 seconds back. Even though more than half of field was not able to take a run, the race will still count as a valid race and the results will stand.
The U.S. had three athletes get runs in before the race was called. Leading the results was hometown favorite River Radamus. Hailing from Edwards, Radamus recorded a time of 1:08.39 to take 12th overall. The finish marks a 10-place improvement from the super-G competition at the Copper Cup last week.
“Obviously it has been a difficult day,” Radamus said. “Lots of starts and stops. We were sitting in the start, which just gets you a lot of time to get in your own head. I was trying to clear that from my mind. I knew that whenever we got to go, I had to be ready. To have to wait that long up there, I wanted to make it worth it. I wanted to lay it all on the line.”
Edwards’ River Radamus competes during a World Cup men’s super-G on Friday.Robert F. Bukaty/AP
Radamus felt he did a good job at “laying it all on the line” during his run, but unfortunately made a major mistake which cost him a few places.
“It is frustrating and I will be thinking about that one tonight,” Radamus said.
Radamus was soon followed by fellow teammate Ryan Cochran-Siegle of Vermont. The 2022 super-G silver medalist took 13th overall with a time of 1:08.45. Jared Goldberg of Salt Lake City finished 25th with a time of 1:10.48.
Birds of Prey will continue on Sunday with the men’s giant slalom. Free live music is still scheduled to take place on Saturday, despite there being no races. Kendall Street Company will take to the stage at 2 p.m., with Jackie Greene following at 4:15 p.m.
After the free live shows on Saturday afternoon, there will be the men’s bib draw and giveaways at 6 p.m., as well as fireworks at 6:15 p.m. The evening will end with Switchfoot performing a paid show at The Vilar Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. For tickets, visit VilarPACTickets.org.
