Beijing 2022 OWG preview: Parallel Giant Slalom
Feb 07, 2022·Alpine Snowboard
Parallel giant slalom is second on the docket for snowboarding medal event at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and with four days of trainings already in the books everything is locked and loaded for the big show on Tuesday with women’s and men’s qualifications scheduled to go down at 10:40 local time and finals following right after in the afternoon at 14:30.
PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games moguls results
Women:
Gold - Ester Ledecka (CZE), Silver - Selina Joerg (GER), Bronze - Ramona Theresia Hofmeister (GER)
Men:
Gold - Nevin Galmarini (SUI), Silver - Sangho Lee (KOR), Bronze - Zan Kosir (SLO)
Can Ledecka make it back-to-back at the Games?
On the women’s side it’s Ester Ledecka (CZE), who leads the charge coming into the Beijing 2022 as one of the greatest snow-sports athlete in the history will be certainly looking to defend her Olympic title from PyeongChang. And while Ledecka have spent most of her 2021/22 season racing at the alpine World Cup, she’s definitely top favourite for the win at every race she enters.
With only four starts on snowboard tour in last two season, she still managed to win three of those races and there’s no doubt she’s hoping to add one more Olympic title on Tuesday to what is already an extraordinary record of achievements.
Ledecka is not only the first athlete to compete in snowboard and alpine skiing at any Olympic Winter Games, she is also the only one at Beijing 2022.
After winning gold in the women’s super-G in Alpine skiing at PyeongChang 2018, Ledecka became the third athlete, and first woman, to win gold in two different disciplines at a single OWG, and now can become the first woman to defend the parallel giant slalom Olympic title.
But to do so she will first have to go against a pretty stacked field of riders in the likes of Ramona Theresia Hofmeister (GER), Sofia Nadyrshina (RUS), Daniela Ulbling (AUT) or Ladina Jenny (SUI).
Nadyrshina is coming into Tuesday’s parallel giant slalom competitions as the current PGS World Cup leader, hoping to become the youngest parallel giant slalom Olympic gold medallist and the first gold medallist of the ROC in this event.
Hofmeister might not be experiencing the season of her career, but she’s still one of the fastest women in snowboarding and with as many as 27 World Cup podiums and 13 wins, she will be doing everything she can to step up from her bronze medal performance in PyeongChang, and go for gold this time.
Daniela Ulbling (AUT) on the other hand, is definitely experiencing the best seasons in her career with two wins in 2021/22, while her teammate Julia Dujmovits, who came back to competing in 2021, is also in top-form with impressive results just ahead of the Games. She could add a second snowboarding gold medal to the one she took home in 2014 parallel slalom. With those two athletes in squad Austria has pretty high chances to stay up in the game and aim at what could be Austria’s first Olympic gold in PGS.
Then, there is Ladina Jenny, who leads strong Swiss team with Patrizia Kummer or Julie Zogg also expected to play a huge role on Tuesday.
Finally let’s not forget about Nadya Ochner (ITA), Tsubaki Miki (JPN), Aleksandra Król (POL), Natalia Soboleva (ROC), or the German duo of Carolin Langenhorst and Melanie Hochreiter (GER), all motivated to make some noise in China.
Interesting storylines ahead of men's competition
While moving over to men’s part of the competition there is a couple of interesting storylines that can turn into some fantastic Olympic history this week.
Benjamin Karl (AUT), Nevin Galmarini (SUI) and Zan Kosir (SLO) all have a chance to become the first athlete to complete the gold, silver, bronze medal set in any snowboard discipline when the men's parallel giant slalom competition goes down on at Genting Snow Park P & X Stadium.
Karl and Kosir can complete the set by winning gold in the men's parallel giant slalom. KARL already has a silver in the men's parallel giant slalom from Vancouver 2010 and bronze in the (discontinued) men's parallel slalom in 2014, while Kosir has two bronze medals from 2014 in the men's parallel giant slalom from 2014 and a silver in the parallel slalom of 2014. Galmarini on the other hand needs a bronze, as he won silver in PGS at Sochi 2014 and gold at PyeongChang 2018.
To make things event more interesting Kosir currently shares the record of three Olympic snowboarding medals with USA’s Shaun White, Jamie Anderson and the retired Kelly Clark. And with any medal in Beijing, the Slovenian rider can become the most successful snowboarder at the Olympic Games.
Then, there is also 2019 and 2021 world champion Dmitrii Loginov (ROC), as the 22-year-old can become the youngest male snowboarder to win a medal in Alpine snowboarding. His coming into the Games PGS race in third place on the tour standing and with as many as three World Championships gold medals to his record already so early in his career, it’s pretty clear that he knows how to perform on big stage. We are more than sure that we will see some amazing riding from Loginov on Tuesday.
Going further down the starting list we have five-time Crystal Globe winner Andreas Prommegger (AUT) and six-time Crystal Globe winner Roland Fischnaller, who are the most successful World Cup athletes who have yet to win an Olympic medal.
Both 41 years old, Prommegger or Fischnaller can become the oldest Olympic snowboarding medallist. Mathieu Bozzetto (FRA) holds the record at this stage after winning bronze at Vancouver 2010 at 36 years, 102 days old.
Victory Wild (ROC), the Sochi 2014 champion in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom, can become the first alpine snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals. Wild or 2018 winner Galmarini can equal Philipp Schoch (SUI) with two gold medals in PGS.
But it’s probably Stefan Baumeister (GER) and Sangho Lee (KOR), who should be on everyone’s radar on Tuesday, as they are coming into the Games as respective No.1 and No. 2 on the PGS World Cup standing and there is no doubt that they both are highly motivated to show their best riding at the O-show.
The parallel giant slalom world cup leader Baumeister can become the first male German athlete to win an Olympic medal in Alpine snowboarding, and the first German rider to win gold, while Sangho Lee (KOR) can double up on his PyeongChang 2018 silver, Korea’s first and only Olympic medal in snowboarding so far.
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