BEAVER CREEK — Andrew Weibrecht appears to have the tools to become a great downhiller. He’s seemingly fearless, grew up skiing on hard, icy slopes, has a knack for generating speed and coaches say he’s a competitor who hates to lose.
If his performances here Thursday and Friday are any indication, the 21-year-old World Cup newcomer from Lake Placid, N.Y., also will be quite the entertainer, on skis and in front of microphones.
Weibrecht scored the first World Cup points of his career in Thursday’s super-combined, finishing 14th. In Friday’s downhill, he charged through a snowstorm to finish 10th, a remarkable result considering it was only his seventh World Cup race and he started 53rd.
“I just love it,” Weibrecht said of performing on the World Cup stage. “The big days are awesome, especially in front of a home crowd. On the training days, it doesn’t seem worth it to crash, because nobody will see it, so if I’m going to hang it out there, I want to do it when everybody is going to watch.”
If downhillers are born risk-takers, Weibrecht’s fearless streak emerged before he got to kindergarten.
“We have a 2 1/2-story chandelier in our house,” said Weibrecht’s father, Ed. “We stopped him when he had the rope over it when he was 3 years old. We caught him standing on the banister, just before he took off.”
Weibrecht was a big Indiana Jones fan and figured if his hero could swing from chandeliers, so could he.
“Me and my brother were just having fun, my parents were out, my sister was babysitting, and she was watching a movie with her friends,” Weibrecht said. “We decided we would give it a try. My parents came in, probably not a minute too (soon).”
Weibrecht grew up skiing the steep and often icy slopes of Whiteface Mountain, just outside of Lake Placid, where the alpine events of the 1980 Olympics were held. Early on, he demonstrated a rare ability to generate exceptional edge angles, a trait his ski team coaches love to see.
“When he was a J3 and a J4 (ages 10-14), coaches would bring their kids out along the side of the course to watch him ski because he always had those natural angles,” his father said. “That’s what they would talk about: ‘Look at those angles; where does that kid get those angles?’ He had that when he was 6 years old.”
Weibrecht claimed a bronze medal in super-G at the 2006 world juniors championships and won the NorAm overall title last season.
“The guy is a super talent,” U.S. head men’s coach Phil McNichol said. “It’s a process, especially with a guy who is such a racehorse like him. He’s got one gear, he goes really hard, and we try to work on getting his technique and his tactics to catch up with his desire and his intensity. He knows how to race, he knows how to go for it. A little more control and experience will take him a long way.”
Downhill races are usually all but decided when No. 53 leaves the start house, but Weibrecht made the leaders pay attention Friday.
“I think he is a man for the future,” said Friday’s winner, Michael Walchhofer of Austria.
The result showed why ski team coaches are so high on him and another young talent, 23-year-old T.J. Lanning, who was 10th in Thursday’s race.
“There’s a good crew of Americans coming up now,” said the team’s top downhiller, Steve Nyman, who finished second Friday. “We have lots of youth and lots of talent.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
