Reece Howden was the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal in ski cross competition at the Olympics. The 27-year-old from Canada did not even make the semifinals.
He made a pathetic excuse for his poor performance.
Howden competes in a sport that relies entirely on snow. And yet, he is upset because it was snowing during his race at the Olympics in Italy.
What is Ski Cross?
Considered a type of freestyle skiing, the ski cross event can be described most simply as a race. Four different skiers take to the course at the same time. They compete against each other (and the clock) to be the first to the bottom. Pretty self-explanatory.
However, the course is riddled with obstacles. Skiers are forced to navigate a series of rollers, jumps and high-banked turns on their way down. They are not allowed to make contact with their opponents. They are not allowed to go outside of the course boundaries.
The sport first debuted as part of the Winter Olympic Games in 2010 and has been contested ever since.
Reece Howden was the gold medal favorite at the Olympics.
Howden ranked as the No. 1 athlete in the world coming into the Milano-Cortina Olympics. He was expected to win the gold medal. Anything short of silver would be a major disappointment. To miss out on the podium all together would be a catastrophic failure.
Everything went according to plan during the 1/8 Finals. Reece Howden placed first in his heat to advance to the quarterfinals. It was a comfortable victory without any issues.
And then it all came crashing down.
Howden got off to a good start in the quarterfinals but he quickly fell back and kept falling back. The gold medal favorite found himself dead last in the four-man heat with no time to make up the lost ground.
He finished dead last in his heat.
Not only did Howden fail to win a medal — any medal — he did not even make the semifinals. His Olympic campaign came to an end with two rounds still to go. The two Italians who beat him in the quarterfinals went on to win gold and silver. Switzerland took bronze.
Canada blames the snow.
Reece Howden was not happy with the Olympics for allowing his race to continue amid heavy snowfall.
“It really sucks that I have been training for four years, and this is what we get to compete in,” he said. “This is just a joke, really. We would never run a downhill race in these conditions. And this is not different, if not worse, having to deal with the draft and people running in the track in front of you.”
Not only did the snow reduce visibility, it made it hade to pass other athletes and slowed down the course by approximately 15 seconds. The Canadian ski cross competitor thought it was unfair.
“We really can’t make it work in these conditions. This is not a good example of what ski cross is. I am upset. I’ve done everything I needed to do. I was skiing really fast going into it. We shouldn’t be racing in these conditions… We didn’t even have enough speed to make the last jump. These are the worst conditions we’ve raced in probably the last two years.”
Pathetic!
Ski cross is a sport that revolves around the snow. Even if the course was slow, all of Howden’s competitors had to deal with the exact same conditions. He was the only one who complained.
The post Canadian Skier Makes Pathetic Excuse For Epic Failure At The Olympics appeared first on BroBible.
Canadian Skier Makes Pathetic Excuse For Epic Failure At The Olympics
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