Slalom Men, Run 2, Val d'Isère, France, 2019
Yesterday I wrote about the slalom men, part of the 2019–20 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup that took place these days in Val d'Isère, France. I'm really happy I could watch the event as it was interesting. Read the first part of my post here
The first run took place in the morning, after being postponed for a day due to a severe snow storm that hit the ski resort. Yesterday the weather was very nice, it wasn't cold as at the top it was -4°C and -2°C at the finish line. This temperature may look extreme to some but let's not forget we're talking about winter sports here in the French Alps and snow is melting above 0°C.
There were 62 poles or gates, which means 60 turns, 60 occasions of making a mistake. The starting order was different this time, the last one started first and that's how everyone got a chance to a good quality slope.
Everything went fine till one point, when the race was interrupted for a couple of minutes after only 10 skiers as they needed to fix a gate. These things happen as those poles are flexible so the skiers won't get hurt and after each of them was "torturing" all the gates in their way down, some gave up. The crew was fantastic, I saw them reacting immediately without hesitation and not only to fix the gate but also after every skier they were taking care of the slope to be perfect (as much as possible) for the next participant.
Kristoffer Jacobsen from Sweden made a mistake that could have costed him but still did good. At some point it looked like he's out of the race but his experience helped him stay. Stefano GROSS had a very good performance and took 1st place after he crossed the finish line in the provisional ranking. The Slovak Istok Rodeš made a huge mistake and finished last. Luke Winter, the star of the first run also made a stupid mistake and finished 26th. Two skiers did not finish the race, these were the Japanese Yohei Koyama and the Swiss ZENHAEUSERN Ramon Zenhaeusern. Adam Zampa, the Slovak was disqualified for stepping on a gate.
This is the ranking of the second run. It looks different from the other one.
And this is the final ranking. As you can see, some got a better position, some placed lower and there were a few who kept their position. This is a sport when one second can determine the color of your medal or worse, can kick you off of the podium.
It was a good race, I loved it.