Andorran Skier Puig Scores Career-Best 4th in World Cup Downhill

Andorran para-alpine skier Roger Puig delivered strong performances across two World Cup downhill races in Santa Caterina, Italy, on 16 and 17 December 2025.

In the first race on Tuesday, Puig finished ninth despite challenging conditions including snowfall and poor visibility. Starting with bib number 11 in his category, he posted the fifth-fastest time in the opening split but lost positions after a minor error on the final wall, where he ranked 12th. His overall time of 1:10.54 left him 2.65 seconds behind winner Robin Cuche of Switzerland. Puig reached a top speed of 119 km/h and secured his 22nd career top-10 finish. The result added 29 points to his tally, lifting him to sixth in the overall standings with 127 points. He also sits seventh in alpine combined (36 points), eighth in super-G (62 points), and ninth in downhill (29 points).

Puig followed up with the best result of his career on Wednesday, taking fourth place—just off the podium—in a high-level field. He improved steadily through the course: seventh in the first split, sixth in the second, and fourth in the third, which he held to the finish. Hitting a peak speed of 117 km/h on a slower, snow-affected track, he clocked 1:09.54, over a second faster than his previous outings there. Cuche defended his title in 1:07.79, ahead of Canada's Alexis Guimond (1:08.42) and Austria's Markus Salcher (1:09.06). The performance earned Puig 50 more points, boosting him to 177 total and fifth place overall, a position he also holds in the downhill rankings with 79 points. It marked his 23rd top-10 in World Cup events.

Puig, who started the second race with bib 13 among 25 competitors, now heads to St Moritz, Switzerland, this weekend for two giant slalom races and a slalom.