After Australia’s most successful day in the snow yesterday, today was a rest day for the Australian athletes. But there was plenty of action on the snowfields with history being made and Alpine Skiing taking centre stage.
While Katie Parker was originally set to compete in the women’s giant slalom, but her delayed flights due to a positive covid test meant she had to withdraw.
Despite a lack of Australians competing today, there were still many exciting events held in Beijing.
Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total | |
1 | Sweden | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
2 | ROC | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
3 | Netherlands | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
4 | China | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
5 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
6 | Norway | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
=11 | Australia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
=11 | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Controversy Overshadows Slopestyle
Canada’s Max Parrot was already sitting in a medal position, sitting in 3rdafter his first run in the finals. However, it was his dominance in his second run that granted him his gold medal.
This was not without controversy however. During his run the commentators noticed it appeared that Parrot had grabbed his leg instead of his board during one of his tricks.
He was not penalised for this, with a score of 90.96.
After winning silver in the 2018 Olympics, Perrot’s preparations for the next quad hit a roadblock, with him having to miss the 2018/19 season, due to a Hogkin’s lymphoma diagnosis and subsequent chemotherapy.
His return to snowboarding proved successful, with multiple X Games gold, and now Olympic gold to add to the cabinet.
17 year old Su Yiming won China’s second ever snowboard medal. Another Canadian, Mark McMorris winning his third straight bronze medal in this event.
Swedish Gold in Giant Slalom
Sara Hector of Sweden was in excellent form coming into the Olympics, and was a favourite to take out a medal.
Coming into this event, Hector had won three of the six Giant Slalom events at the world cup. The USA’s Mikaela Shriffen had taken two of the remaining events.
As the defending champion from 2018, Shriffen was expected to be the biggest contender for the gold, but a crash in qualifying quickly took her out of the running. This proved a common theme, with 21 other crashes during qualifying runs.
With Shriffin out of the way, Hector had no trouble staying on top of the field. She set the fastest time of 57.56 seconds, and backed it up with a time of 58.13 seconds with her second run.
This is a reward for what has been a breakout season for Hector, who before this had only three podiums in international giant slalom events.
Shriffin however, is still likely to achieve another gold, with her best event, the slalom, still yet to come in Beijing.
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Men's Downhill Skiing Powers Through Delays
After being postponed yesterday, due to high wind, the men’s downhill skiing was also contested today.
Unfortunately, while there was less wind, this did not help Dominik Schwaiger of Germany. Schwaiger had to be stretchered off after a heavy crash, landing in safety netting. This caused more delays to the race, with it taking around 10 minutes before they were able to resume.
Competition was tight in this event, with Swizterland’s Beat Feuz beating out France’s Johan Cleary by only .1 of a second.
Pre-race favourite, Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde came into the race leading the world cup standings for the downhill category. Despite a strong training run in the second session, he was unable to achieve his medal, finishing fifth in the standings.
Herrman Finds Form with Olympic Gold
With pinpoint accuracy, and speed on the snow, Germany’s Denise Herrman found no troubles in the women's biathlon. She won the gold medal with a time of 44:12.7 and only missing a single target.
While other athletes came close to her for speed, most notably Marte Olsbu Røiseland, penalties from missed targets made sure that Herrman finished on the top of the podium.
This is somewhat of a surprising result, with Herrman struggling for form this season. This was her first win of the season, and only her second podium place.