Sandra Naeslund of Sweden Takes Gold in Ski Cross Remaining

For all of its excessive pace and spills, Alpine snowboarding is, in its personal means, a managed, stately affair. In any case, every skier will get a good probability to race down the mountain, uninterrupted and unmolested.

Not so in ski cross.

4 skiers burst out of the beginning home on the identical time and race down the course suddenly. Keep of their lanes? Neglect it. They go anyplace they like. There may be reducing off, bumping and video games of high-stakes rooster, and if skiers go down, they’re out of luck.

In a race with such a excessive diploma of seeming randomness, the place it’s so simple to crash, the dominance of Sandra Naeslund of Sweden is solely astonishing.

Naeslund has received 10 of 11 World Cup occasions this season (within the eleventh, she crashed whereas battling for the lead). Fifth within the 2014 Video games in Sochi at age 17, she was the favourite 4 years in the past in Pyeongchang however completed fourth. She got here into Thursday’s occasion as an excellent greater favourite, in an occasion through which heavy favorites are virtually unknown.

As anticipated, she took residence the gold, her first on the Video games. Successful the silver was Marielle Thompson, of Canada, who received the gold for ski cross on the 2014 Olympics. Daniela Maier, of Germany, received the bronze on Thursday.

On Friday, the boys are anticipated to have the sort of wide-open race that ski cross is usually identified for. Search for Bastien Midol and Terence Tchiknavorian of France and Ryan Regez of Switzerland to contend.

If they will keep out of each other’s means.