Potential Olympic Ski Champs Set for Sochi Test

Potential candidates for Olympic downhill gold in 2014 will put their technical and gliding skills to the test when they tackle the men's course for the first time in competition Wednesday.

Sochi will host the Olympic Games in two years’ time and over the next two weeks the world's top alpine skiers compete in four official World Cup races at the nearby Caucasus mountain resort of Rosa Khutor.

Downhill specialists Didier Cuche of Switzerland, Austrian Klaus Kroell, and American Bode Miller will be among the skiers aiming for the podium in the men's downhill race on Saturday.

Sunday will host a super-combined, composed of a downhill followed by a slalom, with all-rounders like Ivica Kostelic -- the reigning overall World Cup champion -- expected to shine.

The first of three training sessions for Saturday's downhill begins Wednesday at 1330 local time (1030 CET/0930 GMT).

It will give the specialists a first glimpse of what kind of approach -- in terms of material to be used and technique to be employed -- will be required if they are to take a realistic shot at Olympic glory.

Described by course designer Bernhard Russi, the 1972 Olympic champion, as a "well-balanced course" with "tight sections... long curves and four very good jumps", potential winners will also require "good gliding skills".

Beginning at an altitude of 2045 meters, the relatively long course length of 3,495 meters means the racers are expected to take a little over two minutes to reach the finish line which sits at an altitude of 970 m.

The vertical drop is 1,075 meters and the maximum gradient on the course is 84 percent.

Cuche, on 437 points, leads Kroell (397), Swiss compatriot Beat Feuz (318), and Miller (301) in the race for the World Cup downhill title with only four of the 11 events remaining.

In the overall World Cup standings the race is just as tight with Kostelic (905 points) leading Austria's Marcel Hirscher (825), Feuz (683) and Cuche (603) with 17 of the season's 44 races remaining.

The Olympic test event continues next week when the women also compete in a downhill and a super-combined, albeit on adjacent runs.