RESULTS: World Champs Junior Downhill Finals

Just like that, it was race day for the juniors. All the preparation leads up to this moment, a 3-minute blast down the mountain to determine who gets to call themselves World Champion and wear the coveted rainbow stripes for a season. One run, one winner; this is really the ultimate test of both skill and mental fortitude. After yesterday's thunderstorm, the riders woke up to blue skies and a track that was drying out fast, and soon enough it was go time.

In the junior women's category, Sweden's Ella Svegby dropped in early and managed to take 3 seconds off her qualifying time from yesterday, but that was still some 6 seconds off Erice van Leuven's qualifying pace so we'd have to wait and see what the Kiwi had left in the tank for today. Sacha Earnest got within 5 seconds of Ella to secure herself a podium spot, but Erice's speed proved too much for the rest of the field to handle and she went on to defend her 2023 title and claim the junior double. Congrats to Erice and to Team New Zealand who came away with 3 of the top 4 spots today.

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Erice van Leuven%2C flow state — Erice van Leuven finding her inner peace during practice earlier this week. Photo by Jack Rice.

Junior Women%27s podium-5 — Photo by Jack Rice.

In the junior men's race, all eyes were on first-year phenom Asa Vermette, and to cut right to the chase, he didn't crumble. Just like in yesterday's qualifying session, Asa got off to a relatively modest start, but kept building speed throughout his run to take another 2 seconds off his qualifying-winning time to seal the deal and walk away with his first rainbow jersey. Max Alran kept him honest, although the gap was bigger than yesterday, and Bode Burke did his part to make it a great day for #USDH as he rounded out the podium in third place.