The European Youth Olympics have started off with a GOLD medal for Freddy Carrick-Smith in the Giant Slalom! Twin brother Zak took fifth place with Hamish Blyth 17th and Toby Stephen in 34th place. To add to the excitement for British racing Ed Guigonnet won the FIS Slalom in Val Casies with an almost minimum FIS points result.
Freddy was second after the first run, just 0.29 behind Norwegian Elias Hartford Kvael with Zak in joint seventh, 1.25 off the leading time. Blyth was 18th, just under two seconds off the lead with Stephen in 43rd, three and a half seconds back.
Freddy, who had carried the flag for Team GB at the opening ceremony the night before, took the win after the Norwegian crashed out on the second run with Zak moving up to 5th place, Blyth moved up to 17th and Stephen 34th.
Freddy took the gold ahead of Norwegian, Storm Andre Hagen, and Croatian Ziggy Vrdoljak with the fastest time on the second run, 0.61 ahead of Czech racer David Janda.
After the race Freddy spoke with Team GB and explained how the day had gone:"It’s just amazing. I’m so happy to have won a gold medal in an event like this.
"I set out in the first run to just get down with a good time, but I knew I had to push it further with the next one because I was in second place by a few tenths of a second. That’s exactly what I did and here we are!
Given all of the hard work he has had to put in how was he feeling about the achievement? "I’ve worked so hard for this in training and it’s just so nice to feel like you’re being rewarded for all those hours on the slopes. It’s hard to describe my feeling right now in any other way than it’s just amazing."
Freddy just missed out on the Gangwon Youth Olympics last year due to the amount of places that GB qualified and his brother had such success there. What does it feel like him to have his own moment now?
"I’m so happy with the result today, but I’m also happy for all of the success that my brother has had recently too because we’ve achieved so much together. I hope that we can have a tight battle in our next event (Slalom on 13/02/2024).
How does that it feel to have such a sporting background and to be able to compete as a family? "Yeah, my dad couldn’t be here because he’s coaching my older brother back home, but it’s just so nice to compete and train all together – I couldn’t imagine it any other way."
This was the first alpine Gold for Team GB at the EYOWF and follows on from twin bother Zak's two golds and a silver in the Youth Olympics last winter.
The EYOF Festival, comprising a Slalom and Giant Slalom plus a team event has seen a number of athletes go on to win Gold at the main Olympic Games, including Anja Paerson (EYOF Gold in 1997 and Olympic Gold in Turin in 2006). Alex Vinatzer, winner of the Gold in the Team event at the World Championships this year won double gold in Turkey in 2017
Many of the class of 2015 at the EYOF are currently winning on the World Cup as well. Albert Popov, Armand Marchant, Laura Pirovano, Katharina Liensberger, Raphael Haaser, Leona Popovic, Katharina Gallhuber and Aline Danoth all won medals that year.
The Irish team have also sent racers and Alpine Skiers Kyle Gump and Finlay Wilson taking
on the Giant Slalom event. Gump, who was one of yesterday’s flagbearers, delivered two solid runs on a challenging course to finish 49th overall, with Wilson registering a DNF in the first run.
In Val Casies Ed Guigonnet took good advantage to record a career best result with a 23.12 FIS point result. Guigonnet has moved to train with the Kronplatz set up this year and while sometimes he admits the luck has not been on his side, from being the 7th best racer on the start list, Guigonnet posted the fastest first run time and was just 0.01 off the fastest time on the second run to take the win by a commending 0.75 seconds.
From a current ranking of just outside the top 400 in the world, Guigonnet will move up into the top 300 on the next FIS points list. This is his first FIS race win.
Full results from GS at EYOF
Results from Val Casies