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Kiwi Alice Robinson has crashed out of today’s super G race, continuing a disappointing Olympics for the alpine skier.

Robinson, who came into the Beijing Games with medal hopes, was hoping to rebound from a poor performance in Monday’s giant slalom, when she finished 22nd in her favoured event.

But after making a flying start to her solitary run at the Yanqing National Alpine Ski Centre, Robinson clipped a gate and crashed heavily to the snow.

After taking a few moments to collect herself, the 20-year-old was able to ski down the course and wave to the cameras at the bottom, though she was limping heavily once she removed her skis.

Robinson is known for her aggressive style and that was on display early in her run, stopping the clock at the first time check 0.06 seconds ahead of the leader.

But she had slipped 0.21s off the lead by the second time check and, needing to push the pace to make a successful bid for the podium in the speed event, a minor error soon proved costly.

Italians had dominated the World Cup season, winning six of the seven races, but they were upstaged by reigning world champion Lara Gut-Behrami, with the Swiss star winning with a time of 1:13:51.

Austria’s Mirjam Puchner claimed silver in 1:13:73 with another Swiss skiier Michelle Gisin claiming bronze in 1:13:81.

Defending Olympic champion Ester Ledecka, who retained her parallel snowboard gold earlier in the week, couldn’t repeat, finishing fifth, while American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin finally finished a race, in ninth after crashing out of the giant slalom and slalom.

Robinson had achieved a career-best fourth in St Moritz in December before contracting Covid and being forced to miss the following week’s race in France.

She showed when she returned to Super G races in Zauchensee and Cortina d’Ampezzo in January that the St Moritz result was no flash in the pan, finishing seventh and ninth, but was unable to perform to her best on the biggest stage.

Robinson, who four years ago became New Zealand’s youngest Olympian, still has one event to come, but her participation in Tuesday’s downhill race will now depend on how she recovers from the crash.

– More to come

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