Alpine skiing combined was the first event for Christopher Hoerl at the Winter Olympic Games of PyeongChang. Even if he made a mistake in downhill, the naturalized Austrian ranked 41st out of 65 competitors with the result of 1:22.25. As he suffered an injury earlier, Hoerl preferred not to compete in slalom so as to concentrate on the February 15 downhill, IPN reports.
Another six athletes also decided not to take part in slalom, while 17 didn’t finish the run. The alpine skiing combined was won by Austria’s Marcel Hirscher (2:06.52). France’s Alexis Pinturault came in second (2:06.75), while Victor Muffat-Jeandet finished third (2:07.54).
Christopher Hoerl said it was an important day and a good race and he was not at all discouraged by the mistake that played a trick on him, as he stated. “The combined run was like training as I’m actually specialized in downhill, not in slalom. The run of this Thursday will be the big challenge for me,” said the athlete who represents Moldova.
Moldova takes part in the Winter Olympic Games for the seventh time. In PyeongChang, the country is represented by two athletes: Nicolae Gaiduc (cross country skiing) and Cristopher Hoerl. Moldova’s team also includes coaches Nadejda Bria and Hans Frick and the representatives of the National Olympic and Sports Committee Cristina Vasilianov and Larisa Popova. The Committee’s president Nicolae Juravschi is also present in PyeongChang.
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games involve a record number of athletes, from 92 countries. Moldova’s best result in the Winter Olympics so far was the eighth position taken by biathlete Natalia Levcenkova in 2006.
