The Birds of Prey course was developed for the 1999 World Championships, designed by Swiss 1972 Olympic champion Bernhard Russi. The first World Cup race was won by Kristian Ghedina of Italy in December 1997, but the course was then dominated by Austrians, led by the legendary Hermann Maier. He won three consecutive Birds of Prey downhills: the 1999world title in front of 20,000 spectators, followed by World Cup victories in each of the next two seasons. In December 2004, Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves took first and second place, respectively, in the World Cup downhill race, the first ever one-two finish for American men in a downhill, and the first in any event in over two decades, since Phil & Steve Mahre in the 1984 Olympic slalom. The two Americans switched positions on the podium the following year, as Rahlves joined Maier as a multiple winner. Miller joined them the next year and gained a third title on the course in December 2011.
Course
For the World Cup downhill race in December 2012, the starting gate was at an elevation of above sea level with the finish line at, a vertical drop of. The course was in length, an average gradient of 27 percent, with a maximum gradient of 45 percent in the middle. Rahlves' time of 1:39.59 in December 2003 is the fastest in competition for the full course, an average speed of and an average vertical descent of per second. The course that year had a vertical drop of and a length of. In November 2018, weather forced a lower start at, reducing the course length to with a vertical drop of. With the flat section of the top eliminated, the winning time of 1:13.59 by Beat Feuz yielded an average speed of and an average vertical descent of per second. The Red Tail Camp finish area is about 800 vertical feet above the resort's main village.
Due to a lack of snow in France in December 2011, the women's super G scheduled for Val-d'Isère was moved to the Birds of Prey course, which had hosted men's races the previous week. It was the first time that women had raced on the course. The race was won by American skier Lindsey Vonn of Vail, Colorado.
New course
Adjacent to Birds of Prey on Beaver Creek Mountain, a new women's downhill course was built for the 2015 World Championships. Named Raptor, it hosted three women's World Cup events in November 2013, a test run for the world championships less than fifteen months later. Both speed events were won by Lara Gut of Switzerland.
