Loic Meillard has spoken out about the anger surrounding Alta Badia. © ANSA / ANDREA SOLERO

Turmoil around Alta Badia: Meillard defends himself against accusation

The conditions on the slopes at the giant slalom in Alta Badia have heated up tempers. Loic Meillard, a well-known athlete, has now spoken out - and defended himself against an accusation.

24 December 2024

From: never

Loic Meillard ventured onto the Gran Risa on Sunday with starting number one in the giant slalom. All too often, the role of the first runner offers a unique advantage. This means that he can consistently follow his own line, and is not irritated by the tracks of his competitors or any potholes. However, this was not the case in Alta Badia - Meillard was in fact expecting bad luck.

"It's terrible to start first when they have to move a few gates after the inspection. You don't know what the conditions are like. That's really bad," Henrik Kristoffersen summed up the mammoth task at Eurosport who had approached Meillard. The conditions on the slopes were unacceptable, "Maybe we shouldn't have gone. That was my feeling," said Kristoffersen.

Meillard was just doing his job

Kristoffersen was not alone in this opinion. Winner Marco Odermatt also agreed with him. “If my word had been decisive, we would not have raced today,” he was told by the Swiss View quoted. As Odermatt's compatriot Justin Murisier further explained, a cancellation was prevented because two prominent athletes had spoken out in favor of starting the race. "Loïc Meillard and Henrik Kristoffersen spoke out in favor of starting the race to the jury because they had favorable starting numbers 1 and 3 for this bad track," he explained.

“I neither said yes nor no to this giant slalom.” Loic Meillard

While Kristoffersen already atones to some extent with his subsequent criticism and his ninth place, Meillard did not fully accept this accusation. The "culprit" defended himself a day later and asserted that at the end of the day he had only done his job. "I neither said yes nor no to this giant slalom. When the other athletes started to discuss it half an hour before the start of the race, I did not take part in it," he said.

As the starting runner, he had a tighter schedule, after all, if the jury had said "yes" he would have been on the track as a guinea pig - which is what ultimately happened. "Instead, I started with my warm-up program because I had to be ready in time with the starting number one in case the jury decided to start the race. And that's what happened," Meillard said.

Loic Meillard at the giant slalom in Alta Badia. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

After 16th place in the giant slalom and all the fuss, the World Cup in Alta Badia finally had a conciliatory end for Meillard. In the slalom on Monday, the 28-year-old raced to second place and achieved his second consecutive podium finish in this discipline.