OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — Norwegian ski racer Alexander Steen Olsen earned his first World Cup win after AJ Ginnis of Greece was disqualified for lacking a gate in a slalom occasion held on a snowy Sunday on the Palisades Tahoe resort.
With the visibility deteriorating because the snow picked up depth, Steen Olsen turned in a clear go by the difficult course set to complete in a two-run mixed time of 1 minute, 47.47 seconds. Fellow Norwegian racer Timon Haugan was 0.05 seconds behind in second. There was a tie for third between Bulgaria’s Albert Popov, who made a cost from nicely again within the pack, and first-run chief Clement Noel of France.
The rostrum took a number of minutes to kind out as officers reviewed the run of Ginnis, who got here down in first place however appeared to straddle a gate. In a single video angle, it was powerful to inform attributable to a cloud of snow close to his carving ski. The missed gate was finally confirmed.
“I really feel sorry for AJ,” Steen Olsen stated. “However that’s the game. It’s on the restrict.”
Ginnis was as soon as with the U.S. ski group earlier than changing into a member of Greece’s squad. He was second within the slalom on the Alpine snowboarding world championships on Feb. 19.
In twelfth place after the primary run, Steen Olsen took calculated dangers to choose up the win. Earlier than Sunday, his earlier finest World Cup end was fourth in a large slalom race final month in Austria.
“It is so unbelievable,” Steen Olsen stated after the race. “I do not know what to say. It is so loopy.”
The lads’s World Cup circuit was making a cease on the Palisades Tahoe resort for the primary time since 1969. Earlier than Steen Olsen’s efficiency, the final racer to win a males’s World Cup slalom race on the venue was Billy Kidd.
It was a decent competitors Sunday, with 14 racers ending inside 0.82 seconds of Steen Olsen’s successful time. The circumstances did not trouble him.
“I’m from Norway. There’s numerous snow additionally,” Steen Olsen cracked. “Simply tried to go for it.”
Popov, who was twenty fifth after his first run, rocketed up the leaderboard — on a course arrange by his coach — to earn his first profession World Cup podium spot.
“I’ve been ready a lot,” Popov stated of a podium end. “The shape is sweet. Right this moment, I had somewhat little bit of luck.”
Noel, the reigning Olympic slalom champion, had a strong run going till close to the underside of the hill.
“It was fairly powerful,” Noel stated of the circumstances. “The snow was OK, however the visibility, the climate, was actually troublesome for the second run. … On the finish, I’m fairly completely satisfied wit the rostrum.”
The lads’s World Cup circuit now heads to Aspen, Colorado, for velocity races subsequent weekend.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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