Quim Salarich, 19th in a slash crusher that crowns Meillard

The Spanish skier Quim Salarich finished this Monday in nineteenth position in the alpine skiing slalom of the Winter Olympic Games that are being held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) and crowned the Swiss Loic Meillard in a test that was a crusher for many candidates.

The Catalan athlete, 32 years old and the flag bearer of the national delegation at the event along with Olivia Smart, was finally able to get even for his two previous experiences and managed to get into the second descent of a slalom that was very complicated, especially in its first descent, with weather conditions on the Stelvio that did not forgive even the best in the most technical specialty of alpine skiing and with more than 40 skiers unable to finish the initial descent.

This partly benefited Salarich to be among the 30 who made the cut, although the Spanish skier also suffered, especially in the initial part of his descent, with an intense and uncomfortable snowfall that already complicated a complex slalom, where he was even on the verge of falling to the ground.

The Catalan knew how to maintain balance and end up going from less to more to finish at the finish line with a time of 1:00.32, which gave him the ticket to his first second Olympic heat in this modality as the twenty-first best of those classified.

Among these were no longer candidates for the medal such as the Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, champion of the giant, the French Paco Rassat, twice winner this season, the Austrian Manuel Feller, winner last month in Kitzbühel (Austria), the Italian Alex Vinatzer or the Finnish Eduard Hallberg, all without being able to reach the finish line.

The first round was dominated by two of the big favorites, the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath, leader of the slalom World Cup, and the Swiss Loic Meillard, current world champion, separated by just over half a second, and with the Austrian Fabio Gstrein, 0.92 hundredths behind. The gold medalist from four years ago, the Frenchman Clement Noel, also failed and although he did finish, he finished almost two seconds behind, although he was later eliminated in his attempt at an epic comeback.

The second descent already had better weather conditions in the Stelvio and Salarich was able to enjoy it, again with some problems in the upper area, which he compensated in the following sections to finish with a time of 57.85, the fifteenth of the finalists, and a total of 1:58.18, with which he finished nineteenth.

As for the fight for the medals, the gold finally went to Meillard, who benefited from McGrath’s mistake, who went off in a gate just after starting his second descent as the last of the participants.

The Swiss, silver in the team competition and bronze last weekend in the giant, beat Fabio Gstrein by 0.35 hundredths, while the bronze went to the Norwegian veteran Henrik Kristoffersen, already more than a second behind.

Meillard’s victory meant that Switzerland became the dominant country in men’s alpine skiing by winning four of the five events of these Winter Games, with Franjo von Allmen champion in downhill, super-G and team combined, along with Tanguy Nef.