The starting list for Thursday's sprint downhill has been determined. During Wednesday evening's team leaders' meeting, the start numbers for the first of three speed events at the 58th Saslong Classic were assigned.

The race, which is being held as a replacement for the canceled Beaver Creek downhill, will be opened by Italy's Mattia Casse. The winner of the 2024 super-G will be the first athlete to tackle the shortened course at 11:45 am.

Two of the favorites, Austria's Daniel Hemetsberger, wearing bib number 3, and the US's Bryce Bennett (No. 4), have been assigned low start numbers. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will also be starting early: the Saslong specialist and comeback kid from Norway will tackle the sprint downhill with bib number 5.

The first skier in the top group to start is Switzerland's Franjo von Allmen (No. 6). He is followed closely by a high-caliber trio: Vincent Kriechmayr (Austria) will start with bib number 7, followed by US skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle (No. 8) and Swiss skier Alexis Monney (No. 9).

Things are set to get really exciting – and probably also particularly loud in the finish area – a little later on: Dominik Paris is the 13th skier to take to the start. The local favorite from Ultimo/Ulten won the classic downhill race on the Saslong in 2023 and is once again one of the hot favorites in the battle for victory on Thursday. Immediately afterwards, last year's winner and top favorite Marco Odermatt will start the race with bib no. 14.

Among the 67 starters from 18 nations are a total of eight Italians. In addition to Paris, two other South Tyroleans are also competing: Florian Schieder from Castelrotto will start the race with bib no. 16, followed by Christof Innerhofer from Gais with bib no. 37.

From a sporting history perspective, Thursday's sprint downhill marks a very special milestone: the race is the 1,000th downhill race in World Cup history, counting both women's and men's competitions.

The complete start list for the sprint downhill can be found here.

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