SANTA CATERINA DI VALFURVA (ITALY) - Travis Ganong opened his World Cup account on Sunday, the United States skier winning the men's downhill at Santa Caterina di Valfurva.
Travis Ganong of the US celebrates after winning the Men's World Cup downhill race in Santa Caterina, Italy, on December 28, 2014
The 26-year-old was joined on the podium in Italy by Matthias Mayer, second at nine hundredths of a second, and local hope Dominik Paris.
Norway's Kjetil Jansrud, who leads the World Cup downhill and overall standings, had an off day, trailing in 15th, over one second off the pace.
Up to now Jansrud has finished in the top three in all the downhills staged so far this season - winning in Lake Louise and Beavers Creek, and taking second at Val Gardena.
Despite his lowly finish he remained top of both sets of standings. He leads the downhill classifications on 626 points by 50 from Austrian Marcel Hirscher, and the overall on 296 points from Paris (220) and Steven Nyman (195).
Ganong took fifth in the downhill at the Sochi Olympics while his previous best placing on the World Cup circuit was a third at Kvitfjell in February.