British Athletes Step Onto The X-Games Podium
The last week of major competition before the Olympic Winter Games is currently taking place with success for our freestyle skiers on one of the biggest stages in the sport.
Izzy Atkin and James Woods both scored top three finishes at the X-Games in Aspen in what has been widely viewed as one of the highest quality competitions of all time.
Elsewhere, Jasmin Taylor continued her phenomenal run on the Telemark World Cup circuit, Dave Ryding prepares for his last pre-Olympics race and our best up and coming alpine and cross country skiers are in action at the Under 23 and Junior World Championships
X-Games, Aspen USA – Thursday 25 to Sunday 28 January
Izzy Atkin and James Woods have both come away from the X-Games in Aspen with podium finishes against quality fields, laying the platform for strong performances next month in PyeongChang.
On Saturday, Atkin was second in the women’s ski slopestyle event, finishing just behind fellow 19-year-old Maggie Voisin (USA) with 15-year-old Swede Jennie-Lee Burmansson in third. Highlighting just how strong Atkin’s performance was, all eight athletes in the final have tasted World Cup victory including the current slopestyle World Champion and a reigning Olympic medallist.
Woods had a busy few days in Aspen and was impressive throughout. On Friday he finished second in the ski slopestyle qualifiers to safely move through to Sunday’s final.
Then on Saturday, he was almost successful in defending his ski big air title from 2017, ultimately finishing third – and achieving his fourth career X-Games podium – behind Henrik Harlaut (SWE) and Øystein Bråten (NOR).
And on Sunday he almost added to that in the slopestyle finals, but was pushed from second to fourth on the final run, less than two points from the top step of the podium. It is the third year in a row that Woods has finished fourth in the event at the Aspen X-Games.
FIS Alpine World Cup, Lenzerheide SUI – Saturday 27 & Sunday 28 January
FIS Alpine World Cup, Stockholm SWE – Tuesday 30 January
British Alpine skiers Dave Ryding and Alex Tilley are having their final World Cup competitions this week ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Tilley unfortunately had troubles at Lenzerheide where she failed to finish the first run in both Saturday’s giant slalom and Sunday’s slalom.
Tomorrow, Ryding will take part in the City Event in Stockholm, a format which he has performed well in recently. Last year at this event he finished fourth, and he achieved the same result on New Year’s Day in Oslo where he eliminated world number one Marcel Hirscher in the quarter-finals.
FIS Telemark World Cup, Sugarbush Resort USA – Wednesday 24 to Friday 26 January
Last week Jasmin Taylor notched her first World Cup victory and it took her just four days to double her tally when she won the opening classic event at Sugarbush Resort.
The 24-year-old was a class above the rest of the field, finishing almost three seconds ahead of second-placed Argeline tan Bouquet (FRA) and Simon Oehrli (SUI), third.
On Thursday she then notched her 17th career World Cup podium when she was third in the second classic race before finishing just off the podium (fourth) in Friday’s sprint.
Taylor (17) has now moved past Mike Nemesvary (16) into second place on Britain’s list of all-time World Cup podiums. Freestyle skier Jilly Curry remains on top with 29 top three finishes between 1987 and 1994.
FIS Nordic Junior & Under 23 World Championships, Goms SUI – Sunday 28 January to Friday 3 February
FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships, Davos SUI – Monday 29 January to Thursday 8 February
Britain’s stars of the future are in Switzerland this week at the Junior World Championships of alpine and cross country skiing.
James Clugnet, 21, took his great form from the Dresden World Cup to Goms where he finished 13th in the U23 sprint prologue to qualify for the knockout stage. Unfortunately, he missed out on the final place in the semi-finals by the narrowest of margins – 0.01 seconds – to finish 13th overall.
Nichole Bathe finished 39th in the women’s U23 sprint event, while on Sunday Hamish Wolfe was 86th in the Junior sprint.
Over the coming week, the team – which also includes Oliver Newman in the junior events – will take part in the 10km (junior men and U23 ladies) and 15km classic (U23 men) races as well as the skiathlon.
In Davos, nine British athletes will be taking part in the alpine Junior World Championships.
Jess Anderson, Victoria Palla and Abi Bruce will compete in the female giant slalom and slalom, Honor Clissold will be in the giant slalom and Ella Still in the slalom.
Iain Innes has the busiest schedule of anyone competing in the male giant slalom, slalom, super G, downhill and alpine combined. Will Beney, Zak Vinter and Robert Poth are each competing in the giant slalom and slalom.
Anderson, Palla, Vinter and Poth will also compete in the Team Event.
