When Cornelia Öhlund had completed half of the second run on her Olympic debut, she was on the verge of a sensation.
Then the stick went off and the dream of a medal went up in smoke.
In the end she didn’t even make it to the finish.
– I can’t understand how it happened. Once it broke, it became unbalanced and very difficult to ride, said Öhlund, who had never experienced a broken stick in his career.
“This shouldn’t happen and it’s typical for it to happen at the Olympics, but these are very good rods and I won’t change a thing,” she said.
Öhlund was disappointedbut tried to view his Olympic debut positively
“I have every chance of winning an Olympic medal today and that ends with a broken pole, but I am very happy with my skiing today and I will take that with me,” said the 20-year-old.
Despite the broken rod, it was a Swedish medal.
Behind her at the finish, Anna Swenn-Larsson celebrated bronze together with the American Mikael Shiffrin (gold) and the Swiss Camille Rast (silver).
– Super, super fun that Anna finally gets the medal. “She deserves it so much and I’m so happy for her,” Öhlund said.
The Swedish ladies wins two Alpine medals in Cortina, but for Sara Hector and Anna Swenn-Larsson it was the last Olympic Games. Probably not for Öhlund. With Åretjejen, who became junior world champion in slalom last year, there is hope for Swedish downhill skiing in the future.
– I have a lot of skiing ahead of me. “Next time it will be my turn to stand there and get a medal,” Öhlund said.
Swedish national team manager Per Jonsson was impressed.
“Cornelia shows in the first race and also in the second that she has what it takes to get to the top, so we have a bright future there,” said Jonsson, who was as confused as everyone else about the pole vault.
“I haven’t seen a picture of it yet and we haven’t analyzed it, so I can’t answer how it can break,” he said.
Read more:
Olympic bronze went to Anna Swenn-Larsson
