Winter Olympics: Katie Ormerod misses out on snowboard slopestyle final
- Published
Katie Ormerod misses out on snowboard slopestyle final at Winter Olympics
24th Winter Olympic Games |
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Hosts: Beijing, China Dates: 4-20 February |
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds; live text and highlights on BBC Sport website and mobile app |
British snowboarder Katie Ormerod missed out on a place in the women's slopestyle final as she made her long-awaited Olympic debut.
After injury ruled her out on the eve of the Pyeongchang Games four years ago, the 24-year-old finished 19th in qualifying on artificial snow in China.
Only the top 12 riders progressed to Sunday's final.
"It feels amazing to be able to call myself an Olympian," Yorkshire's Ormerod told BBC Sport.
"I've been waiting years to finally say that. To drop in and compete at an Olympics. It feels really special.
"I'm really happy with my runs. It's been a really challenging and difficult course to master, so just to be able to put a full run down and it's exactly how I wanted it as well, so I couldn't be any happier with my riding.
"The snow is definitely a lot more challenging than real snow, because of just how firm it is. I made it work so I'm really proud."
Having narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Sochi 2014 Olympics, Ormerod was a medal contender going into Pyeongchang in 2018.
But having already broken her wrist in South Korea, she snapped her heel bone clean in two, requiring seven operations including a skin graft using the skin of a pig.
Since then, she has come back stronger than ever, winning the 2019-20 Crystal Globe - the overall World Cup title.
In the mountains of Zhangjiakou, some 110 miles from Beijing, she scored 47.38 on her first run.
It put her in 12th position with one run to go, but a 44.01 score saw her slip down the standings as others improved on their first attempts.
Twenty-year-old New Zealander Zoi Sadowski-Synnott - a two-time slopestyle world champion - topped qualification with a best score of 86.75.
Ormerod will return later in the Games for the big air, with qualification taking place on 14 February.
"I'm just going to rest in between and put all my focus into that," she said.
Meanwhile, Britain's Will Feneley missed out on a place in the men's moguls final. He could not improve on his first qualification round of 70.23, scoring 67.54 in the second. The 22-year-old finished 27th overall with 20 advancing to the final from two qualification rounds.
In the women's event, sisters Makalya and Leonie Gerken Schofield will be back in action on Sunday at the Genting Snow Park.
Makayla just missed out on automatic qualification, finishing 12th in the first run with the top 10 going through. Older sister Leonie fell but there are still 10 places up for grabs, with 20 skiers battling for them.
Rupert Staudinger is in 24th place after the first two runs of the men's luge and will be back on Sunday for the third run. He needs to move up into the top 20 to qualify for the fourth and final run.
Germany's Johannes Ludwig leads the standings, with double Olympic champion Felix Loch currently out of the medal positions in fourth, 0.382 seconds behind his compatriot.