Greta Goes Big with a PB in Her Final Race of Beijing 2022
Published Thu 17 Feb 2022
Greta Small has finished her Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games campaign on a high after achieving her best ever alpine combined result in Olympic competition.
In recording her Olympic Personal Best finish (13th), it is also Australia's third-best ever result in the Olympic alpine combined event and our best in 20 years.
The event involved racers taking two runs in a single day, one downhill and one slalom, where the final times were combined to determine the overall result.
Taking place on the speed and technical courses at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, ‘the Rock' and ‘the Ice River' respectively proved to be a challenge too much for even the most experienced competitors. There were 11 of the 26 racers that could not complete both courses.
After mixed results in her previous events, Greta has done herself proud.
"I tried to go for it up the top [of the course]. It's snowing here and super flat light which makes it really challenging," she said.
"It might look like snow but it's basically like skiing down an ice rink. Every turn down the last pitch I felt like I was just going to fall so I was just fighting to keep up and make it to the finish.
"It might not have been pretty but you know Mikaela Shiffrin, the world's best, went out on the first eight gates so that just shows you how tough it is out there."