Bassino, Liensberger share women's parallel gold after rule mixup at skiing worlds
Organizers initially declared Italian athlete the winner of giant slalom race
Katharina Liensberger was talking to reporters in the mixed zone when she learned that her silver medal in the parallel giant slalom event had been upgraded to a tie for gold at the world championships.
The Austrian fell to the snow in celebration.
"I just cannot believe it, but it's true," Liensberger said. "I was a little bit confused in the finish."
She wasn't the only one.
Ski racing's quick-fire parallel event has seen so many rule changes over the years that many fans hardly understand it anymore. On Tuesday, even athletes and organizers at the world championships were so confused by the regulations that it took a while to sort out the medals.
The women's two-run final between Marta Bassino and Liensberger ended in a tie, and organizers initially declared the Italian the winner as she came from behind in the second leg.
However, that was an old rule which isn't valid anymore. So the results were quickly changed to having two co-champions.
"Just 0.00 [on the clock], and then nobody knew what was going on," Liensberger said.
WATCH | Bassino, Liensberger stand together atop podium:
Dedicates victory to injured teammate Goggia
Sharing the win with Liensberger, Bassino earned host nation Italy its first medal after seven events.
"Finally. We don't have the crowd but now I have a medal so I can think [about] the GS without pressure," said Bassino, who is a favourite in Thursday's giant slalom after winning four World Cup races in the discipline this season.
Earlier Tuesday, Bassino only just made the cut after qualifying also ended in confusion. Official result sheets did not specify which 16 racers actually advanced to the knockout phase.
Ranked 17th, the Italian seemed out of the race until it became clear that it wasn't the 16 fastest skiers overall who advanced, but but the top eight from each course.
That rule saved the Italian, who was eighth-fastest on the red course.
Bassino said she felt "sorry" to have eliminated her teammate Brignone in the quarter-finals.
"But that's our sport. We have to fight one against one other," she said.
Career best result for Moltzan
Bronze in the women's event went to France's Tessa Worley, who defeated Paula Moltzan of the United States.
"My best at world champs before this was [18th], so fourth is incredible," said Moltzan, who finished runner-up in the only World Cup parallel event this season in November.
Why is Moltzan doing so well at parallel races?
"I like the start gates," she said. "As athletes we're all super-competitive so I think this is an interesting way to bring it out of everybody and I had a lot of fun. I just like it."
Calgary's Cassidy Gray, competing at her first world championships, was 19-100ths of a second shy of qualifying for the final.
There was no confusion over the result in the men's final, where Mathieu Faivre won both runs against Croatian skier Filip Zubcic to earn France its first gold of the worlds.
WATCH | Faivre skis to men's parallel world title:
Loic Meillard won bronze for Switzerland in the men's race after beating Alexander Schmid of Germany in the small final. River Radamus reached the quarter-finals, where he lost to Zubcic.
Calgary's Trevor Philp fell 57-100ths of a second short of qualifying for the final.
'It was the most unfair and absurd race'
The confusion over finishing times was not the only issue affecting the event.
And the courses were not straight, either.
"It was the most unfair and absurd race," said Federica Brignone, who lost an all-Italian quarter-final against Bassino.
"I've never seen such an unfair race. Parallel races have to be straight. You can't have the course turning like that," she added. "Whoever started on the blue course in the first run had already practically won. I'm really angry and I don't know if I'll get over it."
Bassino acknowledged "there's always some controversy in parallel. But at least today everyone got to run on both courses."
With files from CBC Sports
