BORMIO, Italy, Feb 16 : Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath led a crash-hit Olympic men’s slalom with the fastest time of a first run that many favourites including Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen failed to complete on Monday.
Driving snow and a tricky course setup made conditions treacherous for the final men’s Alpine skiing race but World Cup slalom leader McGrath had no trouble.
Benefiting from being the first skier on a bloated 96-man start list, the 25-year-old McGrath was smooth and clinical to stop the clock on 56.14 seconds.
He will take an advantage of 0.59 seconds over Swiss world champion Loic Meillard into the second leg later. Austria’s Fabio Gstrein was third-quickest, 0.94 seconds off the pace.
Norway-born Braathen, who on Saturday won the giant slalom to give Brazil and South America a first-ever Winter Olympic medal, began well but lost control midway down and slid out.
Several top contenders suffered the same fate including France’s Paco Rassat who straddled a gate and Austria’s Manuel Feller. France’s reigning Olympic champion Clement Noel got down but was 1.96 seconds behind in a tie for seventh place with Austria’s Marco Schwarz.
GRANDFATHER INSPIRED MCGRATH TO TAKE UP SKIING
McGrath, who was born in Vermont but moved to Norway when he was two with his American father Felix and Norwegian mother Selma Lie, is racing little more than a week after the death of his 83-year-old grandfather Svein Lie, who he credits for inspiring his sporting journey.
“I really like when I can just go out and set the standard. So that was my goal,” McGrath, who was fifth in the giant slalom, said. “This is a huge challenge for an Alpine skier. Maybe the biggest there is, but I’m ready.”
Norway is yet to win a medal in the men’s Alpine skiing at this Games but will have high hopes now after Timon Haugan was fourth-fastest in the first run and Henrik Kristoffersen sixth.
Belgium’s Armand Marchant has a shot at his country’s first Alpine skiing medal after placing fifth on the first run.
Pinheiro Braathen danced for joy after his stunning gold on Saturday, but there were groans of disappointment from the grandstand when a stumble ended his hopes of a double.
He said he would now be supporting his former Norway teammate, junior rival and close friend McGrath.
“Oh man. This sport. It brings you up to the sky and it just slams you back into reality equally as fast,” he said. “Of course (I will celebrate) if (McGrath) wins. I will be rooting for him.”
Despite pre-race talk of the course being easy, only 44 of the 96 starters – including skiers representing nations such as Thailand, Benin, Hong Kong and Jamaica – completed their first runs.
“The visibility was terrible. So it’s really hard to kind of trust where you’re putting your feet,” said Britain’s Billy Major, who was 13th-fastest.
Haitian Richardson Viano, who was adopted as a child and grew up in northern Italy, finished an impressive 29th and will go in the reverse-order top-30 in the second leg.
