Alpine Skier Zoe Michael best of the Aussies at Hotham ANC
Published Thu 29 Aug 2019
The FIS ANC Alpine was held at Mt Hotham on Monday 19 August to Friday 23 August 2019.
Photo: Chris Hocking / Snowy Mountains Magazine
17-year-old Zoe Michael was the best performed out of the Australian athletes finishing 5th and 6th in her slalom races and 8th in the Giant Slalom.
Her times remained consistent in both her efforts on the slalom course, finishing with a total time of 1:55:14 and 1:56:30 in the first and second races respectively.
Zoe said that although the weather conditions weren’t ideal, she was pleased with her performance on the slalom course.
“During the slalom the weather turned pretty bad, so the course became quite rutty, but I felt strong and stable and was able to keep a high tempo speed and make minimal mistakes,” Zoe said.
The giant slalom was noted by Zoe as being one of the best courses she had competed on.
“The giant slalom was probably one of my favourite courses I have completed in FIS so far – it had the perfect balance between steeps and flats, and I felt so much exhilaration coming out of a good turn.”
After a solid performance at Mt Hotham, Zoe remains ambitious and has some big plans for herself in the next 6 months.
“One of my biggest goals is to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games that are going to be held in Switzerland in January 2020,” said Zoe.
“I hope to get my giant slalom points low enough to meet the Australian criteria and then next year I’m hoping to take a gap year to focus on my skiing.”
Fellow Aussies Sophie Mahon and Rebecca Brown also finished in the top 12 in the Women's. Louis Muhlen Schulte was the best of the Aussie men with a 12th place finish in the Giant Slalom behind Austrian winner Magnus Walch and Swiss duo Daniele Sette and Semyel Bissig. The mens Slalom event was unfortunately canceled due to weather.