A year to the day after being sidelined by a horrific knee injury in Beaver Creek, Thomas Dressen staged a perfect comeback when he won the opening downhill of the 2019/2020 FIS World Cup season at Lake Louise on Saturday.
Dressen crashed at full speed this time last year and ended up in the safety nets, which saw him tear his right knee ligaments and end his 2018-2019 season hopes.
A big crash at Beaver Creek last year ended Dressen's season
© Erich Spiess/ASP/Red Bull Content Pool
This time, the German stormed down the tricky course in a superb 1m 46.81s to snatch victory by just 0.02s from Italian rival Dominik Paris.
Swiss pair Carlo Janka and Beat Feuz tied for third after Janka dominated training with Feuz's podium setting him up well in the defence of his downhill title.
Winning on the day of my comeback is just unbelievable!
It was Dressen's third World Cup victory after Kvitfjell and Kitzbühel with super-G world champion Paris just missing out on his fourth downhill win in a row.
The victory lifted Dressen to second in the overall FIS World Cup standings behind Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen with the Lake Louise super-G on Sunday.
Dressen, 26, enthused: "Finishing in the top 10 would have been already a great result, but winning on the day of my comeback is just unbelievable!"
Lake Louise men's downhill result:
- 1. Thomas Dressen (Germany) 1m 46.81s
- 2. Dominik Paris (Italy) +0.02s
- 3= Beat Feuz (Switzerland) +0.26s
- 3= Carlo Janka (Switzerland) +0.26s
- 5. Matthias Mayer (Austria) +0.42
FIS World Cup men's overall standings:
- 1. Henrik Kristoffersen (Norway) 113pts
- 2= Alexis Pinturault (France) 100
- 2= Thomas Dressen (Germany) 100
- 4= Dominik Paris (Italy) 80
- 4= Mathieu Faivre (France) 80
- 4= Clément Noël (France) 80