Winter Olympic daily updates: #10 A ‘minging’ fourth place for Woodsy

After “Super Saturday” comes “Sober Sunday”, as Woodsy finishes the slopestyle finals in fourth place and Elise Christie is diagnosed with soft tissue damage

Woodsy put it rather succinctly:

“Fourth place is minging, it’s so devastating.”

 
We feel his pain as simply watching the slopestyle skier come agonisingly close to taking a place on the podium to finish in fourth was hard enough. The 26-year-old Yorkshire man was laying down a great first run but crashed out at the final jump, which had him fighting through the next two runs to stay in the medals. Unfortunately, Nick Goepper (USA) just pipped him to bronze in the final run.

Despite losing out, Woodsy remained positive: “That was just the most incredible competition – it really, really was. We had perfect weather, we had a perfect course, everyone brought their A-game – it was an amazing event. It was just a great show. I could not be prouder of free skiing.”

Yo! Thanks for all of the support crew – it was an incredible day of shredding all round @olympics ! I went all in for the ‘W’ and couldn’t not be more proud of myself – 3 runs in finals that I am so stoked on despite tiny, tiny wobbles which cost me the event. Came away with a couple of stitches and a sore back but am bursting with pride thanks to each and every shredder, freeskiers & snowboarders, who ride their heart out and leave it all out there on the mountain – respect! Even if you didn’t get to shred here, big ups, let’s keep on rocking and thank you for letting me part of this epic journey! ??

A post shared by Woodsy (@jameswoodsy) on Feb 18, 2018 at 1:23am PST

Meanwhile, Elise Christie, who was taken to hospital yesterday after crashing out of the 1500m short-track speed skating semi-finals, has been diagnosed with soft tissue damage. Nonetheless, the steely athlete is determined to recover in time for the 1000m event next week Tuesday.

Over in Alpine, Austria’s Marcel Hirscher continued to assert his dominance, claiming gold in the Men’s Giant Slalom with a fantastic demonstration of skill and strength. He finished a whopping 1.27 seconds ahead of Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen, while Frenchman Alexis Pinturault took bronze. It puts Hirscher in prime position to score a hat-trick of golds at this Games, with the Men’s Slalom scheduled for next Thursday.

Tomorrow

Team GB have a busier day ahead of them tomorrow with Aimee Fuller set to go big guns in the Women’s Big Air qualifications (starting at 00.30 GMT) and our freestyle skiers Rowan Cheshire and Molly Summerhayes starting their Women’s Halfpipe campaign in the qualifiers (from 01.00 GMT). Also flying the flag for GB will be the men’s curling team, Brad Hall in bobsleigh and Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland in Figure Skating.