Laidlaw to fly flag for Australia at Alpine Skiing World Championships

Australia’s Harry Laidlaw will be the nation’s sole representative when he competes at the upcoming 2017 World Alpine Skiing Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Laidlaw, who competed at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in 2012, will make his World Championship debut after qualifying two years ago but choosing instead to focus on the Junior World Championships. 

He will go into the St Moritz World Championships, buoyed by a series of impressive results this season. He recorded a career best Super-G FIS point result in the NorAm series in Panorama and just recently notched up a career best Giant Slalom FIS result in Austria.

At the same time of the World Championships, a Europa Cup race that was cancelled in December will be rescheduled to take place in Oberjoch, Germany. Laidlaw is set to make the most of his opportunities and contest the Super-G at the World Championships, before heading to the Europa Cup to undertake its two Giant Slalom races.

“It’s unfortunate the calendars clash forcing Harry to make a decision,” Alpine Program Director Brad Wall said.

“Harry has recorded career best performances and is in good form ahead of the World Championships. He is on a high right now and thinks his best opportunity to qualify for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics will be through the Europa Cup events.”

Laidlaw will be the only Australian represented at Worlds after a series of injuries and other circumstances caused the other qualified athletes to withdraw.

Greta Small, who had qualified for her third World Championships and was in strong form, had an accident in Yongpyong, Korea, partially tore her ACL in a Giant Slalom race that saw three other top seeded women suffer the same injury on the same gate.

“I can't lie, it was the most disappointing and devastating day of my life so far when I was weeks away from competing at my third World Championships,” Small said. 

Small was competing in her first full season after recovering from knee surgery in April 2015 and whilst the knee injured is the same, it has no relation to the previous injury. Shortly after the incident, Small returned to Australia and has undergone surgery and will now start rehabilitation with the next Winter Olympics in focus.

“I have come back from injury before so there is no doubt in my mind, I will be back stronger than before and skiing faster than before,” Small said.

Just 24 hours after Small’s accident, 20-year-old Alec Scott also injured his ACL ruling him out from the World Championships. Competing at a Europa Cup in Val D’Isere, Scott suffered a complete ACL tear, a partially torn meniscus and bone bruising. He had surgery in Europe that went well and will undertake six to nine months recovery.

Winter Olympian Dominic Demschar also qualified for the Worlds but is unable to attend due to commitments at the University of Utah where he is studying and working to qualify for the NCAA Championships.

Veteran skier Jenny Owens also withdrew from the event, after aggravating an old knee injury and not being able to get as much training as she would have liked.

“Since the end of November my skiing has definitely gone backwards,” Owens said. “I was happy with where I was at pre Christmas but things have definitely slipped since then.
Because of this, I feel my results at World Championships won’t be up to the standards I believe I can achieve. I would only be going to go and that isn’t why I am skiing again. I am not doing this to perform mediocre or worse, I want to be skiing my best at the time of these types of events.”

Owens began her alpine skiing career in 1994, and would go on to compete two World Championships in 2001 and 2003, as well as the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. Owens has just recently returned to alpine skiing after a successful career in ski cross and some time in retirement. She had made her alpine comeback with PyeongChang in sight but will now go back to the drawing board to see what the next year will hold for her.

Youth Olympians Louis Muhlen and Katie Parker were also strong contenders for the event but both have decided to focus on preparing for World Junior Championships in March as it is more appropriate for their progression and will be a true benchmark for them against the best junior athletes in the world.

The 2017 FIS World Ski Championships will take place in St Moritz, Switzerland from 6-19 February 2017. Follow SSA on facebook, instagram and twitter to keep up with all the action. More information and live streaming can be found at stmoritz2017.ch