Matt Ryan moves into the second run of the Giant Slalom ranked 28th after clocking a time of 1.06.80 in the first race this morning. He is competing on day four of the Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, with the Alpine Skiing taking place in the ski resort Les Diablerets.
Ryan is sitting 4.30 seconds outside leader Philip Hoffmann from Austria going into the next run, with the overall finish position in the Giant Slalom being based on the combined scores.
Speaking after the race, Ryan was delighted with his run, “it felt pretty good, I’m happy with my position right now. I have got to focus now for the second run and try to do the same thing.”
The course has been consistently icy this week, and Ryan needed to register a score in order to move to the second run. His finish position this morning means that he will be third starter later today – the top thirty in the first run are ‘flipped’ going into the second run, which means that the skier who finished first earlier today will be the thirtieth starter, and the thirtieth finisher starts first.
In the Giant Slalom, sixty of the seventy-seven starters move into the second run, with most of the slips earlier today occurring towards the bottom of the course. Describing the course Ryan said,
“Up top it was pretty straight, not too turny, so I tried to push the line up there. Coming onto the pitch it started to tighten up and swing a little more, so it was all about active movement, staying in the turn. And towards the bottom and got a little icy, so that’s where a lot of people are slipping out, I think. But I kept on and finished 22nd.”
There was a delayed start to today’s race, following a technical issue with the gondola bringing the athletes up to the start. The race was pushed forward by an hour and a half, which Ryan took in his stride, “I try to not let delays or changes, or anything throw me off, so I try to stay focused do what I usually do and have fun.”
The second run begins at 13:15 Irish time.
The Youth Olympics run from the 9-22 January with all the Irish interest occurring between 10 – 14 January with Alpine Skiers Matt Ryan and Emma Austin.
They are competing in the third edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games, with the Alpine Skiing taking place in the ski resort, Les Diablerets.
The Winter Youth Olympic Games have complete gender balance, with the same number of males and females competing, and they are a sustainable-games with athletes and competitors using existing transport systems. Over the course of the games almost 1900 athletes are competing in 8 sports, which cover 16 disciplines and 81 sporting events! To maximise sustainability the sports are run in waves, with Alpine Skiing featuring in the first wave.
Footage from competition at the Youth Olympics can be found on the LAUSANNE 2020 website and on the OLYMPIC CHANNEL.
The Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland will be the first of two major events for Team Ireland in 2020, with the Summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo later this year.
RESULTS (AFTER THE FIRST RUN)
First in Ranking Philip Hoffmann (Austria) 1:02.50
Second in Ranking Adam Hofstedt (Sweden) 1:03.19
Third in Ranking Martin Krizaj (Slovenia) 1:04.00
Thirtieth in Ranking Matt Ryan (Ireland) 1:06.80
