First fall then cheering at Morgan
Morgan, German solo entertainer, got off to a good start in the Olympic adventure, mastered the rails in the first run, but fell while jumping and thus had no chance of a top score. With 29.61 points, Morgan was in 20th place, was under a lot of pressure before the second run and had to deliver.
Shivering nothing new
The young snowboarder, who was still a figure skater until she was 13, showed strong nerves and completed her second run as planned. The judges rewarded the performance with 67.63 points. That was enough for the final of the top twelve. There were 30 starters in total. “It’s standard for me that I don’t land it in the first, and then I land in the second”, said Morgan after the nail-biter on the course at Zhangjiakou.
The sports director of the German snowboard team, Andreas Scheid, wants one from Morgan “stable performance”, which is enough for a top ten. “Annika is still very young and the level here is higher than in the World Cup so far. She will be at the perfect age for the 2026 games.”
medal would be “Insanity”
Morgan is the only German freestyle snowboarder who competes in slopestyle. Her goal was the final, which would be a medal “absolute madness”, she had said before qualifying. She showed that a lot is possible on a perfect day at the prestigious Laax Open when she made everyone sit up and take notice in third place.
Slopestylers fly on Sunday
The men’s slopestyle competition begins on Sunday (5:30 a.m./CET) with the qualifying runs. Then things get serious for Leon Vockensperger (SC Rosenheim) and Noah Vicktor (WSV Bischofswiesen). Both fight in the qualification for a final ticket.
The games had started badly for Vockensperger. The best German slopestyler injured himself during a training fall on Wednesday and injured his knee on the hard artificial snow. “I have to be honest, when I stood up today before the first run and saw the house obstacle where I fell yesterday, I was extremely nervous.”, said the Rosenheimer in the press conference on Thursday. You can’t just hide a fall like that.