US-born McGrath leads Norway sweep in World Cup slalom and celebrates with signature Cuche ski flip

Atle Lie McGrath protected his first-run lead and completed a Norwegian sweep of the podium in a World Cup slalom on Sunday.

McGrath celebrated victory just as he did posting the fastest time in the morning run — kicking up his right ski to flip it end over end and catching it, in the style of Swiss former downhill star Didier Cuche to delight fans in the finish area.

The United States-born Norwegian finished 0.18 seconds ahead of Timon Haugan, who was 10th-fastest in the first run. Henrik Kristoffersen was 0.29 back in third and extended his lead in the season-long slalom standings.

“It means a lot, it’s been three years since my last win,” a tearful McGrath said of his victory. “It’s so cool to come down and be a triple Norwegian win. I was so close last year, I’m a bit overwhelmed.”

While Switzerland has been the strongest men’s team across the World Cup disciplines this season, Norway is a solid second now with five race wins by five different skiers. Haugan and Kristoffersen also each won a slalom and joined McGrath for hugs after he finished.

“It’s incredible,” McGrath said. ”We’re a small team but we have super high quality and we have generally really nice people who want each other (to do) well.”

Switzerland is still searching for a first slalom win at Wengen since 1987, though had Tanguy Nef, Loic Meillard and Daniel Yule finishing fourth, fifth and sixth.

McGrath, whose father Felix raced for the U.S. team at the 1988 Calgary Olympics, had described Cuche after his morning run as “one of my heroes.”

“He told me in Kitzbühel last year that if I taught his son how to ski slalom he would teach me the Cuche Flip because I’m so bad at it,” said the 24-year-old McGrath, who did it expertly twice Sunday.

McGrath further explained his emotions because he failed to finish the past two slaloms, including at nearby Adelboden last Sunday, following three straight podium finishes.

“The last two weeks I have been challenging and feeling like I’m the best slalom skier in the world and not getting results. I felt today it had to happen,” he said.

McGrath said he heard the racecourse commentary while standing in the start gate and knew his teammates led the race, so “there was no other choice” but to complete the sweep.

One year ago, he also led the Wengen race into the second run but let the win slip away to Manuel Feller of Austria.

The sunshine and blue skies of Saturday for the classic Lauberhorn downhill were replaced by clouds for the slalom that is raced on a different slope that shares the same finish area.

That downhill was won by Marco Odermatt, who skips slalom though still has a big lead in the overall World Cup standings in search of a fourth straight title. Kristoffersen is currently second, McGrath fourth and Haugan fifth.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing