The fast and the furious
I have a confession to make: I fell asleep. I couldn’t make it and I’m sorry. I can understand you’re disappointed and if this changes the way you think of me, I get it. Frankly, staying awake until 2 a.m. to watch cross-country skiing was never going to happen.
I’m sorry, Tonga. Clearly this was never meant to be. Now had that hour promised the excitement of snowboard cross that would have been a whole other story! Another quick, and somewhat dirty, winter Olympic sport, cross has athletes corralled in an elevated starting stall, that sees them drop into play like they are entering the Hunger Games. May the dips, twists and turns be forever in your favour.
One of the 10 snowboarding events in these winter games, boarder cross as it is known in the extreme sports circle, originated back in the 1990s. It’s held true to its original rules (which I think only include don’t noticeably try to kill your co-competitors) this speed-wins-the-day event certainly has cleaned up its act having come under the Olympic banner for Torino in 2006. Again, the event highlights the speed of the athlete but the course continually challenges the skill level throwing in a collection of elements. Five athletes start out with knees pumping and quads burning, more often than not the group seems to dwindle as they approach the finish.
A quick Google search will help explain further how the women’s qualification rounds to the men’s seeding rounds differ as they break down the groups of athletes for each run eventually finding a winner. No, they are not equal but don’t worry no one is protesting. The women’s rounds are done in an organized, elimination-round fashion while the men’s is more like organized chaos. Sport imitates life.
Ladies Aerials finals came
with it its own battles. With the last qualification rounds, the field saw an upset of epic proportions when the top ranked woman, Mengtao XU of China, came up incredibly short off the jump resulting in a face-first landing and keeping her out of the super final. On top of the rare missteps of the favoured
Australian competitors, it made for an interesting top six going into the super final.
The Super final started with American Madison Olsen with an epic wipe out. Next up was verteran Alla Tsuper of Bellarus with another epic wipe out. With four skiers to go, and the top contenders down and
out, the podium was wide open. After watching her teammate go down, Hanna Huskova of Bellarus managed to find a wobbly landing and takes first place. Three skiers were left to go. Laura Peel, with the pressure of all of Australia on her, couldn’t keep it together, hit the ground hard and rolled. Two skiers left and they were both from China, representing a program that has never won Olympic gold in this event. Zhang Xin sticks a landing and secures a medal for China! Kong Fanyu, with gold on the line, goes too big and slaps back on the landing but earns a bronze giving her teammate the silver.
Bellarus takes home the gold! And I go back to bed.