Another gruelling day for alpine skiers in -19 dec C conditions at the Youth Winter Olympics in Gangwon, South Korea, produced a second medal for Italy’s Giorgio Collomb, but also a second “DNF” for Lara Markthaler.
The 16-year-old South African was one of 36 starters who were unable to finish the Women’s Giant Slalom at the Jeongseon High Ski 1 Resort on Tuesday. Only 43 skiers completed the two runs down the mountain.
Markthaler was unable to finish the first of the two runs, one of 24 competitors to fall out of the competition at this point.
For an example of what the teenagers had to face, consider this. The Course is named Apollo 6 and it starts at an altitude of 1252m. It finishes at an altitude of 870m, which means a vertical drop of 382m. There are two “runs”, with the first having 33 gates and 31 turning gates, and the second run of 35 gates and 34 turning gates.
The temperature was -19deg C for the first run and by the time the second run began it had risen to -15degC.
Collomb started the second run with a lead of 0.14 seconds. Despite being on the wrong side of the clock at the first intermediate split, she gained speed in the second part, ultimately posting an aggregate time of 1:41.10. This was 11 hundredths of a second faster than silver medallist, Shaienne Zehnder of Switzerland.
This marks the second medal won by Collomb at these Games, following the silver taken in the alpine combined on Monday. It’s also the second gold for the Italian team in the alpine event, and their sixth title of these Youth Olympics overall.
Markthaler’s schedule and updated results is:
Women’s Super-G: 33rd (57.13sec)
Women’s Alpine Combined Slalom: DNF
Women’s Giant Slalom: DNF
24 Jan: Official training
25 Jan: Women’s Slalom