Parallel event debuts with a gold-medal tie

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITALY—Katharina Liensberger was talking to reporters in the mixed zone when she learned that her silver medal in the parallel vent had been upgraded to a tie for gold at the Alpine skiing world championships.

The Austrian fell to the snow in celebration.

“I just cannot believe it, but it’s true,” Liensberger said. “I was a little bit confused in the finish.”

There was plenty of confusion to go around as the parallel event made its debut at the world championships.

The format with skiers competing side by side on giant slalom-like courses is a TV-friendly spectacle meant to add more excitement to the championships. But the event has seen so many rule changes over the years that even organizers needed some time to sort out how to divvy up the medals.

The women’s two-run final between Marta Bassino and Liensberger ended in a tie, and organizers initially declared the Italian the winner as she came from behind in the second leg.

However, that was an old rule which isn’t valid anymore. So the results were quickly changed to having two cochampions.

“Just 0.00 (on the clock), and then nobody knew what was going on,” Liensberger said.

There was no confusion over the result in the men’s final, where Mathieu Faivre won both runs against Croatian skier Filip Zubcic to earn France its first gold of the worlds.

Once again at a parallel race, the two courses were not equally fast, with almost all runs won by the skier on the red course. The racers switched sides between runs, so they had one go at each course, but it was an advantage to have the faster course for the second run.

“It was the most unfair and absurd race,” said Federica Brignone, the overall World Cup champion, after losing an all-Italian quarterfinal to Bassino. “Whoever started on the blue course in the first run had already practically won.”

Bassino acknowledged “there’s always some controversy in parallel. But at least today everyone got to run on both courses.”