Winter Olympics 2022 - Heavy blizzard prompts visibility complaints at start of men’s giant slalom

Luca De Aliprandini and Mathieu Faivre were among the skiers complaining about visibility after treacherous conditions greeted the start of the men’s giant slalom at the Winter Olympics. There was a delay to the women’s freeski slopestyle qualifying, but the giant slalom race was given the all-clear despite a heavy blizzard at the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre.

Ad/> Regulations stipulate that skiers must be able to see three gates ahead of them, but the early frontrunners were evidently questioning whether this was the case during their opening runs. Beijing 2022‘Fell asleep eating goldfish’ – Shiffrin's 'tweet of the Olympics' after downhill training cancelled2 HOURS AGO De Aliprandini went out second after Henrik Kristoffersen, and after the Italian crossed the line 0.37 seconds off the pace he signalled in the finish area that he was struggling to see on his way down the slope.

Race favourite Marco Odermatt set the pace with a 1:02.93, navigating his way through the falling snow despite a few errors. “He’s struggling with the snow and the setup,” Nick Fellows said on Eurosport’s commentary.

“It’s far from over yet, but that’s the start he was hoping for. He looks rather bemused in the finish area, there were one or two turns that he would describe as awful.” Faivre was then comfortably in the green but ended up posting a time just behind Odermatt, and he also complained about the visibility in the finish area, gesturing with his hand in front of his mask to suggest how tough the conditions were.