Russian skier suffers horror crash at the Winter Olympics

Russian skier suffers horror crash at the Winter Olympics



A Russian skier suffered a brutal crash at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday as the event finally got underway after two days of delays due to bad weather.



Pavel Trikhichev, 25, was third out the gate during the men's combined downhill alpine ski event when he struck a gate, lost his left ski and went barrelling into the safety netting.



Trikhichev laid for a few moments in the snow with a thin stream of blood trickling from his mouth before being helped to his feet by stewards - and luckily suffered nothing more than cuts and bruises.



But his spectacular accident is just the latest in a series of falls as high winds plague the downhill events in Pyeongchang. On Monday the women's slopestyle snowboarding saw 41 out of 50 runs end with a crash.





The alpine ski events were delayed in the morning due to winds, and even when they began later in the day, organisers were forced to move the start down the mountain, shaving 20 seconds off the run time.



Gates also had to be moved to let the riders take safer routes while cresting the jumps, though that did not help Trikhichev avoid disaster.



He was the sole athlete of the Olympic Athletes from Russian squad to compete in the event. There is no Russian national team at this Olympics because of a ban following the discovery of a state-sponsored doping ring.



In the slopestyle snowboarding, US athlete Jamie Anderson fought her way to gold despite the conditions.



She retained her title from Sochi, surviving blustery and treacherous conditions at Phoenix Park on one of the most dangerous days in the sport's history. 



Hundreds of numbed fans streamed toward the exits while the action was ongoing, and the stands were half empty as the afternoon wore on with wind chills dipping to -15 degrees Celsius and below.



Anderson - the sport's biggest gamer and its No. 1 big-day rider - conceded: 'I'm not extremely proud of my run.'



Her modest score of 83 resulted in a blowout of nearly seven points over silver medalist Laurie Blouin of Canada.



After the qualifying round was scrubbed due to wind a day earlier, all the riders were summoned back for a two-run final and ordered by their world ranking, giving the top-ranked American the privilege of going last.



After watching rider after rider fail to make her way down the course during the first run, Anderson added a little wax to her board and stood on top, hoping for a 60-second stretch of calm that would allow her to simply stay upright. 



Anderson admitted she won by simply surviving, and also took credit for being one of the few snowboarders who actually wanted to ride.



'I was trying to keep the spirits high, like, "Let's run it",'' she said.



'A handful of the girls were like, "No, it's not safe," and things like that. It's not like what we're doing is safe, anyhow.'



The 27-year-old from South Lake Tahoe, California, would've been favored to win under any conditions.



Her Zen-like mindset is a big part of the equation, and she was ready to go when her alarm went off Monday - wind, snow or shine.



'It's having the experience, and learning to deal with what is,' Anderson said.



'It's not always going to be perfect. A lot of times, everyone's like,"It's going to be perfect in a couple days".



'But yesterday we canceled the event, and we woke up today, and it was just as windy or worse.'



Other angry snowboarders said the 'dangerous' women's slopestyle final should have been cancelled.



It was the latest event at the Games to be disrupted by the swirling wind, with the prestigious men's downhill skiing moved to Thursday.





None of the snowboarders suffered major injury, but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Ski Federation (FIS) faced questions as to why the final was not shelved.



The FIS admitted that conditions were 'challenging' but defended the decision to go ahead with the event, saying the safety of the athletes was their top priority.



Enni Rukajarvi mastered the conditions better than most and took bronze behind defending champion Anderson and Laurie Blouin of Canada, but Finn said her achievement had been overshadowed.



'Most happy that no one got hurt really bad,' she said.



Asked whether it had been the right decision to hold the event, she replied: 'It wasn't. It was better in the practice, but then it got really bad, so they should have cancelled it or moved it.'



The 27-year-old added: 'The weather was bad and too dangerous and I got a lot of wind in my run, so that was bad, too. I had a fall and hurt my chin a little bit so it wasn't too nice.'