After two highly exciting heats, Daniela Maier made it to the ski cross final. The German was one of four women to compete for medals. And the finale had it all.
Daniela Maier won bronze in ski cross. She benefited from the disqualification of the Swiss Fanny Smith. The judges’ review lasted minutes before Maier was promoted from fourth to third place. The German herself had not noticed any offense by her competitor and pointed this out to the judges several times. The decision stood.
Gold went to Swede Sandra Naeslund, silver went to Marielle Thompson from Canada.
What happened?
Maier was third for a long time, but was slowed down and dropped back to fourth. Fanny Smith in front had problems with her skis after a small jump and easily crossed the track of the Germans. In hindsight, that was too much contact for the competition judges, so there was a yellow card and thus disqualification.
While ex-world champion Smith could hardly believe the decision, Heli Herdt, the sporting director of the German ski crossers, was confident in his judgement: “The bronze medal is safe,” he emphasized on ARD, and “tomorrow,” he added, ” tomorrow nobody will ask how the medal came about.” When Maier, stunned, climbed onto the winner’s podium, tears flowed.
For the German ski freestylers it was only the second medal ever and the first in ski cross. In 1998 Tatjana Mittermayer won silver on the mogul slope. Johanna Holzmann, sports soldier from Sonthofen, dropped out on the 1.2 kilometer course in the quarterfinals. The men’s race takes place on Friday.