The slopestyle competition of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang ended with a big disappointment for Anna Gasser.
Austria’s athlete of the year was a victim of the changing wind conditions under far from fair conditions, like many other athletes, and finished in 15th place.
Strong headwind gusts ruined the chances of various sportswomen, while Gasser was the downfall in the second run. The Carinthian went into the second run after finishing in twelfth place with a measured amount of risk, delivered a strong performance on the upper part of the course, but was then carried down by the wind far above the penultimate kicker.
“In the air I suddenly got a push, landed at the last line and couldn’t stand the jump any more”, Gasser described in an interview with the ORF radio station,”I had to guess how fast I could drive, it was a bit of a lottery. I’m a little sad we couldn’t do our best today.”
The wind had already affected the preparation for the competition. After the qualification on the previous day was cancelled, the start had to be postponed several times on Monday,”It was really hard. Already in the morning our training was postponed by two hours”, said Gasser, who admitted that the strong wind left its mark on the athletes:”You have seen that many girls were afraid. I’m glad I came down healthy.”
Gold went nevertheless to one of the big favourites. Jamie Anderson from the USA put her experience to good use and successfully defended her title. The 27-year-old received 83.00 points for a well-calculated first run.
The Canadian Laurie Blouin (76.33) and the Finnish Enni Rukajärvi (75.38) won silver and bronze.