Aksel Lund Svindal leads Norwegian sweep in World Cup super-G

Aksel Lund Svindal had some friendly company on the podium after winning a World Cup super-G race on Friday.

Norwegian teammates Kjetil Jansrud and newcomer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde finished second and third, respectively, for an "Attacking Vikings" sweep of the medal places.

Adding to his record with a fourth career win in this race, Svindal clocked 1 minute, 28.12 seconds for a 0.34 seconds advantage over Jansrud.

Kilde finished third, 0.44 behind, for the best result of his career.

"Sharing it with the two oldest guys is amazing — especially when it's your first time on the podium," Kilde said. "So it's a special day for Norway and a really special day for me."

Jansrud won this race last year, while Kilde had never finished better than seventh on the World Cup.

Svindal, the two-time overall World Cup champion, also won this race in 2009, 2012, and 2013.

"It's a course that I've always liked," Svindal said. "It's a smooth course. It's always really good snow, and I'm good on snow — better than I am on slush and on ice. Val Gardena always has perfect winter conditions."

While the course was made up almost entirely of artificial snow amid unusually dry weather in the Dolomites Range, conditions were nearly perfect with the temperature 4 degrees celsius.

It was the first podium sweep for Norway in super-G, with the team already having accomplished the feat in other disciplines in the days of Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt.

Starting with the No. 4 bib, Kilde took the early lead and held it until his more established teammates came down in the top group.

Svindal pointed to Kilde after he came down and, with Jansrud the next skier on the course, there were soon three purple-clad Norwegians in the leaders' spots.

It was the 29th World Cup win for Svindal, tying him with Stephan Eberharter for ninth on the all-time list.

Kilde finished 13th in the super-G at last year's Sochi Olympics, and matched his best previous result by finishing seventh in the super-G in Beaver Creek, Colorado, this month. He's a former world junior champion in giant slalom.

"We've been waiting for Alex for a while and now he proves how good of a skier he is," Jansrud said. "This is our goal — to be on the podium together. I don't think this is an everyday happening."

Two other young Norwegians, Adrian Smiseth Sejersted and Bjoernar Neteland, finished 31st and 35th, respectively.

In the overall standings, Svindal moved within 23 points of leader Marcel Hirscher. Jansrud is third, 193 points behind the Austrian.

Hirscher did not race despite winning the previous super-G in Beaver Creek. American Ted Ligety also didn't enter, since the course doesn't favour technical specialists.

Despite finishing 21st in Beaver Creek two weeks ago, Svindal still has an 80-point lead over Olympic downhill champion Matthias Mayer of Austria in the super-G standings, with Kilde 88 points back in third.

Mayer finished fourth, missing the podium by 0.10.