Cochran-Siegle fastest in Olympics downhill training, Norwegian skier airlifted to hospital

American skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle was fastest in the opening downhill training session of the Milano-Cortina Games on Wednesday but another racer had to be airlifted off the fearsome Stelvio slope.

Cochran-Siegle was 0.16 seconds faster than the young Italian Giovanni Franzoni, who is having a fantastic season, and 0.40 ahead of Swiss standout Marco Odermatt.

Jeffrey Read of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian and 10th fastest on the day, 1.37 seconds behind the leader.

Cameron Alexander and Brodie Seger, both of North Vancouver, B.C., finished 20th and 21st, respectively, just over two seconds off the pace. Toronto's Jack Crawford was 28th and North Vancouver's Riley Seger finished 34th.

Times and placings, however, are all but irrelevant in downhill training. Especially as Wednesday's session was the first of three ahead of Saturday's race.

But the way Cochran-Siegle tackled what is probably one of the toughest Olympic slopes of the past 30 years will serve as a confidence boost.

It is Cochran-Siegle's third Winter Olympics. He won silver at the Beijing Games four years ago, claiming the first Olympic Alpine medal for a U.S. man since 2014.

His mother, Barbara Ann Cochran, was the slalom champion at the 1972 Sapporo Games.

Unrelenting, knee-rattling, complicated by shaded sections and producing speeds touching 140 kph, the Stelvio is a notoriously unforgiving track.

It is one of the most physically demanding on the circuit, at almost 3,230 metres long with a 986m vertical drop and a maximum gradient of 63 per cent.

With every mistake punished on that slope, Fredrik Moeller of Norway had to be taken by helicopter to the hospital after crashing about halfway down as he perhaps rushed the start of a turn and ended up