Radamus ends season with career-best World Cup giant slalom ranking

River Radamus began the Olympic season inspired by an excerpt from “Inner Excellence,” wherein author Jim Murphy wrote of those moments “when everything comes together in perfect harmony.”

In a way, the passage presciently pinpointed Radamus’ season storyline — albeit not in the way he’d hoped.

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to find my speed on the last half of the season. Had some good moments, had some good races on the back half but it didn’t all come together and it didn’t come together today,” Radamus said after finishing 14th in the World Cup finals giant slalom on Tuesday in Lillehammer, Norway.

His two-run time was 2 minutes, 23.24 seconds, 2.59 back from Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who spoiled Marco Odermatt’s bid for a third-consecutive four-globe campaign with a victory. Radamus was 17th after the first run but posted the 11th-best second.

“It wasn’t perfect. It’s spring snow, summer snow — it’s something I’ve always struggled with a little bit,” the 28-year-old said. “I knew that coming in and I wanted to execute but still left a little bit to be desired.”

He shared a similar sentiment after Sunday’s super-G, where he placed 17th. Understandably so. Radamus logged high on-snow training volumes over the off-season, hoping to avenge his two fourth-place finishes from Beijing when the 25th Winter Olympiad touched down in Italy in February.

At Team USA’s November training camp at Copper Mountain, Radamus talked about how his disappointments after a 21st-place result in the Oct. 26 Solden season-opener stemmed from him identifying “the gap between how I know I’m able to ski and how I performed” as being “pretty wide.” He flashed evidence of this newfound level throughout the year.

There was the career-best Birds of Prey finish on the final day in Beaver Creek, where he jumped 12 spots in the second run to sixth overall. In Alta Badia later that month, Radamus was in second after the first run before sliding to seventh in the second. After another poor first run in Adelboden, he stormed back on his second effort — scorching through the course 0.87 seconds faster than the next guy to move up 23 places into seventh.

At his second Olympics, there were emotional highs like racing the team event with former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail teammate Kyle Negomir, but Radamus was just 17th in the GS. While he was politely positive in his overall reflection on the year, one felt the Edwards’ product wanted more from his eighth World Cup campaign, which saw him finish a career-best 10th in the GS standings.

“I’m a pretty harsh critic of myself, so I tend to be a bit down on the performances regardless, but fundamentally, I think my skiing is in a lot better place than it was this time last year,” he said. “(I) made a lot of progress through the summer and to get from where I am to where I want to be I know it’s a long process, and I’m trusting the process and making sure I take the steps as they come.”

Even though he admitted being best friends with the Olympia-loypa piste, Radamus’ speed was affected by the spring conditions at the 1994 Olympic venue on Tuesday.

“My style of skiing — high-edge angle, building power — doesn’t work as well on this soft snow,” he said. “I’ve got to keep the ski underneath me and generate and be a little more subtle than I typically am. It’s something I’m still working on and I enjoy the challenge of trying to figure it out again today.”

He’ll probably get one more shot this weekend in Vail. Temperatures are expected to hover around 50 degrees throughout the U.S. Alpine National Championships, which run from Saturday to Tuesday at Golden Peak. At last year’s national event, Radamus won the GS, was eighth in the super-G and placed fifth in slalom.

“Overall, I’m happy,” Radamus said when asked about how he’s feeling about the season as a whole. “I’m happy with the progress I’ve made fundamentally in my skiing this season and proud of some of the high points I had.”