Silvia Bertagna's bitter-sweet conclusion

Just a few days ago, Silvia Bertagna was devastated after she... fell in her flagship discipline, Big Air. This Tuesday she got her smile back. After she had already made amends in the qualification for the slopestyle competition, she was able to prove her skills again in the final of the best twelve freestylers in the world.

After a not flawless first run, she played it safe on her second run and built the foundation with a solid, risk-free performance to top her best Olympic result to date (8th place, 2014 in Sochi). However, her plan failed at the beginning of the third round: Bertagna came over a rail in the upper part of the course with too much momentum and was unable to stand the subsequent landing. That meant the competition was over for them.

Bertagna took her botched last ride calmly, waved to the TV cameras and patiently waited for her final position at the finish. The scoreboard finally showed 10th place. This was probably the last Olympic appearance in the long career of the experienced woman from Val Gardena, who has done real pioneering work in her sport not only in South Tyrol, but in recent years has repeatedly been forced to watch due to knee injuries. Bertagna's greatest success in her career was winning the Big Air World Cup in the 2018 season. In addition, she was on the podium eight times (one win) in 44 World Cup appearances. Only one is better than Gu This time, other athletes were at the top of the Olympic slopestyle competition in China - including China's superstar Eileen Gu. After gold in Big Air, she won the silver medal on Tuesday. The 18-year-old only had to admit defeat to the Swiss Mathilde Gremaud in Zhangjiakou. Bronze went to Kelly Sildaru from Estonia.

After a fall in the second run, Gu moved ahead with 86,23 points in the third. On Thursday she wants to qualify for the final in the halfpipe. The American-born woman, who starts for hosts China, is one of the most colorful figures in these games.

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Silvia Bertagna's bitter-sweet conclusion

It could have been the last big performance in Silvia Bertagna's career: At the Olympic Slopestyle competition, the 35-year-old South Tyrolean showed her skills again, although not everything went as planned.

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