Gangwon 2024: a home victory in snowboard slopestyle and another historic chapter for Great Britain in alpine skiing
Jan 26, 2024·Inside FIS
The action is going on at Gangwon 2024 Winter YOG in Republic of Korea. The last three days saw 8 medal events in three different FIS disciplines take place.
Freestyle – Ski cross
The ski cross events opened a packed freestyle skiing competition at the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). Here are the winners and medalists:
Women’s ski cross
🥇 Uma Kruse Een (SWE)
🥈 Morgan Shute (USA)
🥉 Leena Thommen (SUI)Men’s ski cross
🥇 Niklas Hoeller (GER)
🥈 Jannik Sommerer (AUT)
🥉 Maans Abersten (SWE)
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Freestyle skiing at Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games: Results and full list of medallists
Freestyle – Slopestyle
Lee Chaeun (KOR) was a picture of joy as he landed at the finish line of the men’s snowboard slopestyle competition, his arms raised high, the crowd in front of him erupting in cheers. The Korean snowboarder had already made headlines less than a year ago, in March 2023, when he won the world title in halfpipe, but slopestyle was not considered his strong event. The Beijing 2022 Olympian has never won a major medal in this discipline – until the day it mattered most, at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics in his home nation, in front of his family.
“The Youth Olympic Games is truly special and its location in the Republic of Korea has been a great source of motivation for me,” Lee told Olympics.com at the finish line. “I won gold at the world championships and two medals in the World Cup series. However, this Youth Olympics gold makes me feel like I’ve come a bit closer to winning a medal at the Olympics.”
Seeing Lee’s high scores, top qualifier Eli Bouchard (CAN) threw a trick he learned only one week ago, a cab 16, into his routine in the hopes of trumping the Korean’s score. The risk paid off as Bouchard landed a best of 90.00, not enough to take over Lee but enough for silver. France’s Romain Allemand rounded off the podium with bronze after picking up 89.25 points on his second run. Like Bouchard (CAN), Allemand (FRA) stepped up his tricks to remain competitive in the high-scoring final.
Earlier in the day, USA's Henry Townshend won gold in the men's freeski slopestyle event by amping up his qualification runs with a few riskier tricks.
Tensions ran high in the women's snowboard and freestyle skiing slopestyle events at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) on Wednesday (24 January) as the destinies of two flagbearers, Flora Tabanelli (ITA) and Lucia Georgalli (NZL), came down to their final scores. In freestyle skiing, one of Italy’s big hopes for the home Winter Olympic Games at Milano Cortina 2026, Tabanelli (ITA) was trying to claw her way back from a crash in the first run. On the snowboard side, the junior world champion from New Zealand, Georgalli, sat at the bottom of a 10-women final after two lackluster runs that earned her a best score of 22.00. As the sun went down and the stakes got higher, both proved that they thrive under the extra pressure. Tabanelli (ITA) claimed freeski gold. Georgalli picked up snowboard silver behind Hanna Karrer (AUT).
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Alpine skiing – Giant slalom
Giorgia Collomb (ITA) triumphs in women's giant slalom, claiming Italy's second gold in alpine competition. The 17-year-old defended her lead in the second run to secure her second medal at these Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) and the third medal overall for the Italian team on the slopes of the Jeongseon High1 Alpine Ski Centre.
The skier from La Thuile started the second run with a lead of 0.14 seconds. Despite being on the wrong side of the clock at the first intermediate split, she gained speed in the second part, ultimately posting an aggregate time of 1:41.10. This was 11 hundredths of a second faster than silver medalist, Shaienne Zehnder (SUI). Astrid Hedin (SWE) climbed five positions to finish in third, just over a second off the pace.
On the men’s side, Nash Huot-Marchand (FRA) delivered two consistently fast runs in the giant slalom on Wednesday (24 January) to claim the first French gold medal in alpine skiing at the Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The 17-year-old trailed Liam Liljenborg (SWE) by 0.34 seconds in the first run and he took the lead when he skied down in the second. Liljenborg, starting last, crashed out, handing over the win to Huot-Marchand: "I'm super happy, I was a bit frustrated with my previous performances (8th in the combined, 33th in the Super G) so now I feel relieved," the French teenager said immediately after his run in the Republic of Korea. Following his historic gold in the men's combined Zak Carrick-Smith continued his fairy tale Youth Olympics by taking his second medal at this Winter Youth Games, finishing in second (+0.93). Bronze went to Austria's Florian Neumayer, who clocked the second-fastest second run to finish one second off the pace.
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Alpine skiing – Slalom
Austrian alpine skier Maja Waroschitz delivered a flawless performance in both runs of the women's slalom on Thursday (25 January) and claimed her second title at these Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The 17-year-old combined champion led after the first run with a 0.34-second advantage over Astrid Hedin (SWE), with Italy's Giorgia Collomb trailing by 0.54 seconds.
In the second run, Germany's Charlotte Grandinger, starting fourth from last, posted the fastest time, but Waroschitz defended most of her lead (-0.79) to cross the line with an aggregate time of 1:37.49, almost six-tenths of a second ahead of silver medal winner Grandinger. The Austrian celebrated her win with a scream of joy and spent a few moments collecting herself, hugging her knees: "It was incredible, I can't find words for that," said Waroschitz, visibly emotional. With Hedin crashing out mid-course, Collomb (ITA) finished third and completed her set of Youth Olympics medals after a silver in combined and a gold in the giant slalom.
Zak Carrick-Smith (GBR) wrote another historic chapter for Great Britain in alpine skiing on Thursday (25 January) by winning the men's slalom and clinching his second gold, and third medal, at the Gangwon 2024 YOG. The 17-year-old was third after the first run, but in the second, the two Swedish who occupied the leading places were not able to beat his aggregate time of 1:38.61: Elliot Westlund finished in second, five hundredths of a second behind, while Liam Liljenborg crashed out in the last section. Bronze went to giant slalom champion Nash Huot-Marchand (FRA), while Neo Kamada (JPN) came in fourth, just missing out on a podium for Japan.
"[This medal] means the world, it's just unbelievable, they [these medals] all mean so much, they are so hard," said Carrick-Smith after the race. This also represents the best result for Team GB in the sport during an Olympic event:
"It's just amazing, we are just slowly climbing up the ladder, we are just getting more and more known and I'm trying to help with that," he added.
Carrick-Smith will also be in action on Friday for the Parallel Team event along with Molly Burton.
