Skiers finally discover unknown Beijing Olympic downhill

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Two-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer clicked into his skis and descended into the unknown.

Then promptly missed two gates.

With the No. 1 bib in the opening downhill training session of the Beijing Games on Thursday, Mayer was the first to test a course that none of the competitors had ever been on before.

"It was more inspection today than racing," said Mayer, who finished his run despite difficulty in finding the right line at the start.

Because test events were canceled over the last two years amid the pandemic, this was the first time that the world’s best skiers got a chance to see the Rock course up close.

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Matthias Mayer, of Austria makes a jump during a men's downhill training run at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, in the Yanqing district of Beijing. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

"I was a little nervous," Mayer said. "We (didn’t) know how the jumps are and how the speed is. So I had to find the right line. ... It was something special."

With challenging jumps, high speeds, perfectly hard snow, clear and sunny skies with only a few gusts of wind on top, the initial verdict was overwhelmingly positive.

"The course is amazing," said Vincent Kriechmayr, Mayer’s Austrian teammate. "The snow conditions are one of the best I’ve ever seen. It’s really nice to ski here. My first impressions are really good.

"Nearly every section is difficult," added Kriechmayr, who won gold in both downhill and super-G at last season’s world championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Stefan Rogentin of Switzerland posted the fastest time of 1 minute, 44.0 seconds. Adur Etzezarreta of Spain