The opening training run started from the Super-G start and was half an hour later than scheduled, at 12:45 pm, on the icy and bumpy Saslong course. "The track in the upper part was softened by the snowfall at night and thus it would not have been possible to guarantee the same conditions for all 96 racers" explains Race Director Rainer Senoner.

It was American Jared Goldberg who coped the best with the different conditions in bright sunshine. On shortened track, the 26-year-old clocked a time of 1:27.27 minutes at the finish. He was followed with almost half a second behind by his team member Wiley Maple. Thomas Dressen from Germany placed third, his fellow countryman Andreas Sander came in fourth. Next was best Italian Werner Heel clocking the same time as Christoph Innerhofer who unfortunately missed a gate. Last year's winner Max Franz finished 21st. Aksel Lund Svindal, who has won on the Saslong five times, was a bit more guarded today finishing 69th, more than three seconds behind. Similarly, team mate Kjetil Jansrud, who was the opening racer on the training, finished in 20th place.

Local hero and two-time overall winner Peter Fill finished in 20th place, also missing a gate, followed by another Italian Dominik Paris in 25th.

The start list can be found here.