Post-Olympic World Cup Action Already Heating Up For GB Athletes

The flame may have gone out in PyeongChang but the 2017/18 season rolls on and a handful of Olympians are amongst those in World Cup action this weekend.

Across Europe, World Cups are taking place in alpine, cross country, ski cross and ski slopestyle with nine British skiers in action.

FIS Alpine World Cup – Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 March – Kranjska Gora SLO
FIS Alpine World Cup – Saturday 3 March – Crans-Montana SUI

Dave Ryding leads the alpine charge into the first post-Olympic World Cups being run in Slovenia and Switzerland.

On Saturday, Charlie Raposo will take on the Giant Slalom at Kranjska Gora in what will be just his third World Cup event. His last World Cup start, and his only one this season, Raposo produced his best-ever result when he was 50th at Alta Badia.

He comes into this event in a rich vein of form having won a Far East Cup race in Korea in January, and followed that up last month with a win and a third place at the Nor-Am event at Spruce Peak in the United States.

Also in action on Saturday will be Cara Brown who is in the Super G at Crans-Montana. It will be the 24-year-old’s third career World Cup start and her first in more than two years. Brown has been in a heavy block of racing this season, having entered 39 events since November with her best results coming at Megeve last month with a pair of Giant Slalom victories at the CIT Arnold Lunn World Cup.

On Sunday Dave Ryding will be targeting another strong slalom race at Kranjska Gora in a season which has already yielded five top 10 results and ninth place at the Winter Olympics. The Slovenian venue has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for Ryding who has qualified for the top 30 just once in six World Cup races since 2012, however he did record a Europa Cup top 10 there in 2013.

All events will be broadcast on Eurosport or Eurosport Player – check guides.

FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup – Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 March – Silvaplana SUI
James Woods was unlucky to leave Korea without an Olympic medal after his fourth place in ski slopestyle but he was keen to get straight back into competition and has already been in action at the Silvaplana World Cup.

In today’s qualifying, Woodsy failed to land his first run which meant it was all on the line in the second. The consummate professional, he scored 82.33 which was good enough for fifth in his heat and he’s qualified for tomorrow’s 12-man final.

Since landing on the World Championships podium last year, Woodsy has continued his solid slopestyle form throughout 2017/18, winning the season-opening World Cup event in New Zealand, finishing seventh at Dew Tour in December, sixth at the Snowmass World Cup in January before placing fourth at both X-Games and the Winter Olympics.

The ladies’ and men’s finals will be streamed live on Saturday on http://corvatsch.ch/live/ from 11:40am GMT.

FIS Cross Country World Cup – Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 March – Lahti FIN
Cross Country skiers love the punishment their sport brings so it is no surprise to see them back in action a week after the curtain came down on PyeongChang.

Andrew Musgrave and Andrew Young return from Korea ready while James Clugnet is back on the World Cup circuit following an impressive performance at Dresden in January.

All three athletes will contest Saturday’s sprint in the free skate technique where a top 30 qualification will earn a place in the knockout stages, as well as Sunday’s’ 15km classic.

Clugnet, 21, recently finished 13th in the sprint at the U23 World Championships and paired with Young earlier in January for a top 10 finish at the World Cup team sprint in Germany. Young already has a sprint World Cup top 10 to his credit from the opening leg of the Tour de Ski and will be looking forward to a strong outing after failing to make the top 30 in the sprint classic in PyeongChang.

Musgrave also made the top 30 in the opening leg of the Tour de Ski to showcase his sprint speed. After putting forward a strong performance in the first half of the Olympic skiathlon, Musgrave should take confidence into Sunday’s 15km classic race.

FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup – Friday 2 to Sunday 4 March – Sunny Valley RUS
Emily Sarsfield and Ollie Davies didn’t make it through qualifying of the penultimate Ski Cross World Cup of the season.

Friday saw two qualifying runs ahead of finals on Saturday and Sunday.

Sarsfield, who finished 16th in PyeongChang, was 22nd in the first qualifying run and 20th in the second, but it wasn’t enough to make the top 16 required to feature on the weekend.

Davies went within three-tenths of a second of qualifying for the top 32 in the first qualifying run, finishing in 36th. He was further off the pace in the second run but having only started racing the World Cup circuit in January, Davies’ performances were stronger than his outings in Idre Fjall and Nakiska.