Italy win gold
Sunday February 28, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Razzoli led after the first run and the others couldn't catch him in the second run. The Croatian, Ivica Kostelic, took silver and Andre Myhrer from Sweden bronze.

It's the first Italian gold since 1988 when the legendary skier, Alberto Tomba, took 2 medals at Calgary.

He thrust both arms in the air after crossing the line and punched the air with delight.  It is the only Italian skiing medal of The Games.

The Austrians cheered louldy for Raich, the reigning champion, who was in bronze place after the first run but it was not to be.

The Austrian women have done OK with 4 medals, 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. 

But the men are empty handed and have come in for severe criticism from the press back home, especially as their arch rivals, Switzerland, have done well with 2 golds in the alpine skiing and 6 gold medals overall.

Bode Miller, who has won a gold, silver and bronze at Vancouver, had a disappointing run and straddled the 4^th gate on his first run. He thumped the ground with his pole and gazed back up the course with a glint in his eye.

At 32 years old this is more than likely his last Olympic Games.

He wasn't the only one to have missed a gate though, as 48 skiers out of 102 did not complete their first run on the course. By the end of it all over half the field had failed to complete the course with just 49 finishers.

The British pair of Andy Noble and Dave Ryding did well.

Top 30 for Noble

They came 32^nd and 33^rd respectively in the first run and ended up with Ryding coming 27th and Noble 29th overall.

In the first run Ryding came down in bad conditions with thick fog and the spectators could barely see him.

"I gave it everything today, I couldn't have asked for any more from myself. I thought I skied some great sections here, but I haven't really had any clean runs,” Ryding said afterwards.

“The important thing is to learn from my experience here.Slalom is so competitive at the moment that you have to risk everything. This has been an experience for me. Hopefully in four years time I can get rid of the mistakes and I can let it rip,” he said.

The Snow LeopardMeanwhile the skier who came down last got one of the biggest cheers of the day.

The Ghanian, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, who is know as The Snow Leopard only took up skiing 5 years ago when he worked at an indoor snow centre in Milton Keynes, England.

See this related PlanetSKI story for more information about the Snow Leopard.  To many he sums up the Olympic spirit.

He skied last in the first run and moved up one place to come second to last.  It allowed him to take part in the second run and where he again came second to last in 48th place. 

He was 43.28 seconds behind Razzoli and will be pleased to have competed and not come last.

Meanwhile, the GB 4-man bob took part in one of the final competitions of the Games.

The 4 man bob

They crashed earlier in their second run but as their bob slid over the line they were ruled as having finished. The went into the final day in 21st place.

In the 2 final runs they finished 14th fastest leaving them in 17th place, 5.75 seconds behind the leaders.

The other British interest on the last full day of events was the snowboarder, Adam Mcleish.

Respectable performance

He was the 52nd and final athlete to compete for Team GB when he took part in the parallel giant slalom on Cypress Mountain on Saturday morning.

He finished 24th in torrid weather conditions.

"Racing in those weather conditions wasn't easy. Visibility was pretty limited with the rain and fog, but the snow was pretty decent so the organisers did a good job preparing the hill," McLeish said afterwards.

"It was challenging today but I enjoyed it. I'm pleased I had two clean runs as it's pretty hit or miss in our sport. I think it's cool that so many people came out to support in this terrible weather. It's been fun."

If you are a new reader to PlanetSKI we are an independent news and information web site about anything ski related; check out the other areas, you may like them.

See our special Olympic Section on PlanetSKI; as well as the latest news it has some in-depth features and a few stories that you won't see elsewhere.

While the latest blog from our content editor reveals he has got rather swept up in it all too.

Information, interviews and photos on the British skiers from the British Olympic Association.

Bookmark this page

Related Articles