U.S Does Not Medal in Olympic Downhill; Travis Ganong of Lake Tahoe 5th

Lake Tahoe's Travis Ganong made his Olympic debut with the best finish of his career in today's Olympic Downhill race in Sochi. The Squaw Valley skier led the race at one point but was bumped by Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, who finished third behind race winner Matthias Mayer of Austria and Christof Innerhofer of Italy.

"I had no idea what I would feel like kicking out of the starting gate today." said Ganong after his race. "I just let myself relax and let my skiing take over. I had a lot of fun and it worked out. It was actually a lot more forgiving today. I was able to push hard from top to bottom and I felt great at the finish."

Marco Sullivan, also of Lake Tahoe, came in 30th. Two more Alpine Skiing racers from Tahoe are due up when the Olympics moves to slalom. Julia Mancuso will ski in Monday's Super-Combined. Tim Jitloff of Reno will race later this week in the men's slalom.