13th February 2019: Elle Murphy has finished 40th in the Giant Slalom at the Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina today. The seventeen year old improved her placing between the first and second run, finishing with an overall time of 2.28.18 just 11.8 seconds off the winner. The competition runs from the 9-16 February in the Olympic host city Sarajevo and East Sarajevo.
“That went a lot better than the first run,” said the Colorado native after second run, “I stayed on top of it more, fixed my line, and it produced better skiing, cleaner turns.”
Between the first and second runs they reset the course in Giant Slalom, and today the newer course favoured Murphy, “This one was more the same tempo every turn, it wasn’t switching up. So the track was more even – rather than bumps it was one clean whole in the snow and was a lot easier to ski and put my tips in.”
The Giant Slalom is a longer, faster event than the Slalom, and for Murphy, the faster the better. Describing the adrenalin rush, she said, “it’s amazing, you kind of forget almost how fast you are going. Over the years I’ve gotten used to it as my skiing evolves. I just get faster and faster and I want that. It’s easier for me to make cleaner arcs going faster – just with the momentum and being able to turn my skis. It’s almost easier for me with the faster events.”
Murphy’s Dublin born father Ken moved to Colorado after leaving college, falling in love with the area, instilling that love in his daughter who described training in the Rocky Mountains as perfect for training, “it’s very good for training, we have hero snow. That’s snow that bends your skis a lot easier and that doesn’t break, but it’s not ice. In Europe you get a lot of ice, and that’s good, but sometimes it’s just too slick. So we get really nice compact snow in Colorado which is good training.”
Tomorrow is the final day of racing for Team Ireland, with Matt Ryan competing in the Giant Slalom at 10am local time.
The EYOF is a biennial multi-sport event for youth athletes across the 50 European member countries of the European Olympic Committees and is a key stepping stone for athletes on their Olympic journey. Eight sports are on the programme for the EYOF, which uses the slogan “together we create the future”.
Results Girl’s Giant Slalom:
Gold Magdelena Egger (AUT) 2:16:38
Silver Rebeka Oblak (SLO) +2.62
Bronze Axelle Chevrier (FRA) +2.64
40th Elle Murphy (IRL) +11.80
- ENDS –
