Olympic news: Fairytale finish eludes Vonn as Goggia romps to Gold

Italy’s Sofia Goggia won the Women’s Olympic Downhill in emphatic style this morning, beating rivals Ragnhild Mowinckel (Norway) and Lindsey Vonn (USA) into Silver and Bronze respectively.

Goggia and Vonn’s rivalry was lit once again on the course but it would be the Italian who edged ahead with a near-perfect run to become Italy’s first ever winner of the Women’s Olympic Downhill. Vonn had been going well without any particular errors but her run just wouldn’t prove fast enough.

At 33, Vonn becomes the oldest ever female Olympic Alpine medalist with Bronze – just another trophy to add to the already-massive cabinet. Vonn was nonetheless disappointed as the final results came in – bursting into tears at one point – particularly at the fact these will be her last Olympics as she reminisced about the passing of her Grandfather.

Vonn has been one of the winningest skiers in history with 81 World Cup wins and four overall titles. Her stature as one of the greats will remain regardless but that success has never transferred over to Olympic titles which have remained elusive. Her Olympic history is summarised well by the bleacherreport.com:

« The 33-year-old first competed in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City when she was 17, following it up with appearances in Torino, Italy, in 2006, Vancouver, Canada, in 2010 and now Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018. She missed the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, due to a torn ACL.

Vonn won a gold medal in downhill and a bronze in super-G at the 2010 Olympics, but she failed to medal in 2002 or 2006. She believed the 2018 Games were her chance to put a cap on her Olympic career.

« I want to end on a high note, » she said prior to the opening ceremony, per Simon Evans of Reuters. « I really want to put an exclamation point on my career. It took me until my third Olympics how to figure out how to deal with the pressure. »

Vonn will have one more attempt at a gold medal in the women’s combined event beginning Thursday in Pyeongchang. »

However, none of this should detract from Goggia’s and Mowinckel’s stunning runs for Gold and Silver. Could we be witnessing a passing of the guard? Possibly.

RESULTS:

Olympic news: Blunck tops qualifiers ahead of Thursday’s Ski Pipe final

Aaron Blunck of Team USA left it til run 2 of qualifiers to nail top spot in the Men’s Olympic Ski Pipe qualifiers earlier today placing ahead of compatriots Alex Ferreira and Torin Yater-Wallace to set up a 1-2-3 US clean sweep.

Aaron’s 94.40 pipped Ferreira’s score by 1.8 with a long gap back to Yater-Wallace’s third place at 89.60. France’s favourite, Kevin Rolland (of our base this season, La Plagne) could only manage 6th. UK riders, Murray Buchan and Peter Speight narrowly missed qualification coming 14th and 15th respectively with Alexander Glavatsky-Yeadon unfortunately not putting down a full run, placing 26th.

The Final of the Men’s Olympic Pipe is scheduled for Thursday 11.30am local time when the US team are again expected to perform well.

RESULTS:

Olympic news: Cassie Sharpe blows minds in Women’s Ski Pipe

Canada’s Cassie Sharpe was head and shoulders above the competition earlier today as she nailed Gold in the Olympic Women’s Pipe event with a blinding run that earned 95.80 and the Olympic title. Closest rival, Marie Martinod of France fell in a promising final run so relied on her previous 92.60 for Silver with America’s Brita Sigourney claiming Bronze in her third and final run with a 91.60.

In truth (and with the greatest respect to all competing), it was almost like watching two finals as the top four skiers really were in a class of their own – particularly in terms of terms of amplitude – a fact not lost on the judges and reflected in the final scores.

Special mention to Marie Martinod of our home resort this season, La Plagne for earning an impressive Silver. The 33 year old, who has announced her retirement following these Olympics, put down improving first and second runs but was unfortunately unable to improve her score, falling in the third. Also Rowan Cheshire of the UK for her 7th place – particularly given her epic struggle to return to the sport after her horrific crash in Sochi.

Defending Olympic Champion, Maddie Bowman of Team USA couldn’t bring the goods this time out and ended 11th.

The level of riding in the Pipe event was insane – a great testament to the speed of progression in the Women’s side of the sport today.

RESULTS

Olympic news: Norway’s Oystein Braaten sweeps field aside to take Gold

Ski Slopestyle Gold was taken by Norway’s Oystein Braaten last night with a convincing 95.00, 1.40 ahead of rivals Nicholas Goepper from the US and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Canada. The UK’s James Woods could manage just 4th after a mistake on a rail during his final run that would have surely put him top of the medals. In the end, he had to watch as he agonizingly slipped down the leaderboard, relying on his 2nd run score.

Braaten relied on his first run 95.00 and stayed top of the pack throughout the following two rounds. He was closely followed by Goepper in Silver who scored a 93.60 in his final run.

RESULTS:

1.  Oystein Braaten (Norway)        95.00 points 
2.  Nicholas Goepper (U.S.)         93.60        
3.  Alex Beaulieu-Marchand (Canada) 92.40        
4.  James Woods (Britain)           91.00        
5.  Teal Harle (Canada)             90.00        
6.  Evan McEachran (Canada)         89.40        
7.  Andri Ragettli (Switzerland)    85.80        
8.  Ferdinand Dahl (Norway)         76.40        
9.  Elias Ambuhl (Switzerland)      73.20        
10. Jonas Hunziker (Switzerland)    66.20        
11. Oscar Wester (Sweden)           62.00        
12. Gus Kenworthy (U.S.)            35.00