Snowsport GB'
Olympic Update 10.
Monday 20th February
2006
After a day of delay which contributed more than 15cms of fresh
snow, the Women's Super G was contested under perfect bluebird skies and
sunshine on the same San Sicario Fraiteve track which hosted the Women's
Downhill last Wednesday.
While Austria's Michaela Dorfmeister gave her
career the fairytale ending it deserves with her second Gold medal of the Games,
Chemmy Alcott skied to 19th place on a course which does not suit her usual
aggressive style and very accomplished technical skiing.
Chemmy, racing
with bib number 8, finished 1.73 seconds off the winning time set by Dorfmeister
who used her vast experience and strong gliding skills to master a relatively
straightforward course on which it was easy to make small mistakes, but very
difficult to regain speed and lost time.
The course, set by
Dorfmeister's coach, made smooth, gliding skills a virtue with long sections of
the course allowing competitors to stay low in their aerodynamic tuck.
"You know today was a too easy race. I'm not dissing it, but with new
slow snow on a course you can tuck the whole thing is not really Super G. When I
was watching the Men's hill the other day I was thinking it looked easy and I
hoped that ours would be tougher. It's frustrating because they injected they
did all this injecting sections with the water bar on the banks and things and
and in the Super G we didn't run on them at all.
"I'm not complaining
because on the day, at the Olympics, it's who's best in the conditions. I think
once again I showed I can do the technical tough bits but when it get slow I
struggle. I got my tactics wrong in the middle.
I was running straight at the
gates to keep them as flat as possible but ended up having to make sharp turns
and that slowed me and I have to get passed that in my head that that feels fast
but it's not. It's a learning experience." Said Chemmy "These are things I have
always known but which I have to work on."
"Chemmy skied well for most
of it but just lost time on the middle sections." Said Snowsport GB's
Performance Director Mark Tilston, "Today was about those subtle changes which
will come to Chemmy in time. I think if you look at who won today and even
Kostelic (second) and Meissnitzer
(third) they have more experience of this
type of conditions. She will learn it time. It's about knowing how and when to
change gears and adapt and that will come."
Britain had no starters in
the Men's Giant Slalom which was won by Austria's Benni Raich.
Ends