Racing first, Feuz was watched by the Swiss president and 35,000 fans, setting a time on the longest World Cup course of 4.27 kilometers (2.65 miles) that only Aksel Lund Svindal could threaten.
Svindal wore the No. 3 bib and led at four of the five time splits, but the big Norwegian finished 0.18 seconds behind Feuz’s 2 minutes, 26.50 seconds.
”I’m very happy with the second place,” said Svindal, who watched Feuz’s run on television at the start house overlooked by the Eiger and Jungfrau mountains. ”I kind of figured it would be a tough one to beat.”
Feuz punched the air with both fists in the leader’s box on seeing Svindal’s time – sensing a 62-man race that would take another two hours to complete was effectively over after eight minutes.
”A fantastic day, unbelievable. When Aksel came down, I knew mine was a good race,” said Feuz, who also won the world championships gold medal on home snow, at St. Moritz last February.
Matthias Mayer of Austria was third, 0.67 behind Feuz. It gave the storied race a podium of the world champion, flanked by the most consistent downhill racer of the past decade, and the 2014 Olympic champion.
Even fourth place was taken by Hannes Reichelt of Austria, who had his streak of five straight podium finishes at Wengen broken. When Reichelt won in 2015, he beat Feuz into second.
Feuz also won at Wengen in 2012, and the Swiss team has now won five of the past nine editions.
With his second downhill win this season, Feuz closed the gap on Svindal who leads the season-long standings. The 30-year-old Swiss previously won at Lake Louise, Canada, in November when Mayer and Svindal were also on the podium.
Svindal extended an impressive streak of top-three finishes in each of five World Cup downhills this season in his latest comeback from serious injuries and surgery.
”I can’t train as much,” said the 35-year-old Svindal who took silver in the 2010 Olympic downhill. ”So I’m very happy that I’m able to pull it out for the races and make it happen.”
On a clear and cold day, the race was run under blue skies with sun lighting much of the course.
Feuz and Svindal were rewarded for choosing low numbers for the 12:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) start. World Cup rules let the top 10-ranked downhill racers pick an odd-numbered bib from Nos. 1 through 19.
Mayer started No. 11 Wes Horton Jersey , and said the snow had become ”sticky” and slower in the sun-bathed upper section.
The fastest speed was recorded by Reichelt, wearing No. 19, who clocked 147.5 kph (almost 92 mph) on a straight section two minutes into his run. Still, the Austrian veteran’s chance was gone after dropping a full second behind Feuz in the top half.
Svindal lost time at halfway going through the S-shaped turns where he grazed his head against safety nets and exited at just 70.7 kph (44 mph).
”It’s one of those old-school turns that’s almost impossible to do with the speed you carry,” he said, revealing his helmet was marked blue from ”burned rubber.”
A festive day included a pre-race fly-past by military jet fighters escorting a Swiss airlines jumbo.
The host nation’s president, Alain Berset, watched in a public duty days before world leaders gather in Switzerland at Davos, where he is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump.
”It’s really magnificent,” Berset told The Associated Press of Feuz’s win. ”It’s the biggest downhill race in the world for us obviously.”
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid arrived Sunday on the campus of Missouri Western State University to start his 20th season as an NFL head coach, yet finds himself energized by what's new on his football team for 2018."There's more new I would say on both sides of the ball," Reid said. "Some of the old guys that have been here aren't here."
The team lost several veterans during the offseason, trading quarterback Alex Smith to Washington and parting ways with longtime linebackers Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali among other moves.
The offseason changes result in a team navigating through its most significant turnover since Reid's 2013 arrival in Kansas City.
"Whether it's the quarterback position, inside linebacker position, outside linebacker position, you're missing a few of those guys and you have new guys coming in that you have an opportunity to see perform," Reid said. "That's exciting to me, I'm looking forward to that."
The biggest change comes at quarterback with Smith giving way to Patrick Mahomes, the No. 10 overall selection in last year's draft. Smith won 50 regular-season games as the team's starter since 2013.
"Alex was phenomenal, he's going to continue to be phenomenal for the Redskins and we feel very lucky to have Pat, to be able to step up and watch him grow here," Reid said. "Let's see how he does. He can't be in any better place, man, than with the Kansas City Chiefs and I know he's fired up about that."
Mahomes arrived in camp Sunday along with the team's other quarterbacks and with coaches , rookies and select veterans. A three-day minicamp starts on Monday before the full squad checks in on July 25. The first full team practice kicks off July 26.
The 22-year-old faces no competition for the starting quarterback job. The team acquired veteran Chad Henne as his understudy and to serve as a sounding board for Mahomes as he navigates his first full season as a starter. Mahomes hopes to use his time in camp to become a more efficient quarterback.
"I want to make sure I can get in and out of the huddle fast, we can make the right checks and just really have a lot of positive plays," Mahomes said.
"Not necessarily the huge plays but just have positive plays and move the chains. That's how you have success in the NFL. You keep taking those yards, taking those yards and then when you have guys that can stretch the field you make those plays and those come within the flow of the game."
With new faces arriving in camp this week, Reid had good news about some of the team's key players returning from injury.
The coach said he expects only wide receiver De'Anthony Thomas and cornerback Ashton Lampkin possibly starting camp on the sidelines. That means center Mitch Morse, linebacker Dee Ford and running back Spencer Ware, all returning from season-ending injuries a year ago, expect to practice with the team.
"All those guys, everybody else is good," Reid said. "Again I just want to see on the field and we'll kind of monitor as it goes but, yeah, they all should be ready to go."
The quarterback change and other roster turnover create an array of differing expectations for this Chiefs' team. Many preseason prognosticators have the Los Angeles Chargers replacing Kansas City atop the AFC West after back-to-back divisional titles.
Reid, however, doesn't see it that way.
"But the important thing is there is high expectations within the building, within the team," Reid said. "They demand that from themselves. You felt that in the OTAs and I expect that to continue. I expect guys to challenge each other, that's the way you get better. We've got great competition that we're going to play this year starting with the Chargers."
Yet with many viewing the 2018 season as a transition, if not rebuilding, year for the Chiefs, even Reid acknowledges that this season paves the way for a brighter future under Mahomes.
"We're striving to win a championship and then to consistently be in a position where we can win a championship as the years go on," Reid said. "And it starts again today."
