BEAVER CREEK, – Travis Ganong of the United States turned in the fastest time in the downhill training run Wednesday on the Birds of Prey course.

The first racer out of the starting gate, Ganong flew through the course in 1 minute, 41.38 seconds, a time that held up for the rest of the afternoon. He edged Siegmar Klotz of Italy by 0.29 seconds. Joachim Puchner of Austria was third.

Austria's Klaus Kroell, who had the fastest time the day before, elected to skip the practice run. So did Ted Ligety and a handful of other top skiers.

The downhill race is scheduled for Friday. Bode Miller is the defending champion but won't compete to give his left knee more time to heal after undergoing microfracture surgery nine months ago.