Cross Country skiers and slopestyle riders debut on Day 9 of Lausanne 2020

The second wave of Lausanne 2020 kicked off on Saturday, with cross country skiers and women's slopestyle riders skater all making their Winter Youth Olympic debuts.

In Vallée de Joux, Zana Evans, Rosie Fordham, Hugo Hinckfuss and John Mordes took on the Cross-Country Cross Free event in the opening day of the cross-country skiing competition.

The event, which made its Youth Olympic Games (YOG) debut at Lillehammer 2016, is a cross-country skiing event which is similar in length to the Sprint event, however, features technical elements throughout the course.

“Cross-country cross free is basically a mix of ski cross with cross-country skiing. It’s on a Sprint course, but it’s a much more technical so it includes jumps, slalom gates, rollers, berms, and it’s really fun,” Hinckfuss explained.

The event begun with a qualification time trial of two laps of the 900m course, with the fastest 30 competitors moving onto the semi-finals.

In the women’s qualifying race, Evans finished in 41th place with a time of 5:36.38, and Fordham finished in 48th place with a time of 5:44.41, which did not see them move into the semi-finals.

“One of my goals going into the event was not to crash, and I achieved that so I’m happy with that as a start to the competition. It was a relief to finish without crashing,” Evans said.

“There’s a few more obstacles in the course which is a bit more challenging as you constantly need to be thinking about what the next obstacle will be,” Fordham said.

“The technical aspects of the jump and the bumps make it quite difficult. The hill climb was really steep, I didn’t realise until I got up there. Focusing on the obstacles and the hill climb made it really hard, especially on the second lap.

“I felt really good in the first lap, in the second lap my legs started to die but I gave it everything I could.”

Switzerland’s Siri Wigger took gold in the women’s event with a final time of 4:53.69, finishing ahead of Sweden’s Maerta Rosenberg in silver and Tove Ericsson in bronze.

In the men’s qualifying race, Hinckfuss finished with a time of 4:38.74, in 52nd place.

“I gave it my all, tried really hard and did everything I could. The course was pretty challenging, but it was a good experience. I really enjoyed it. It’s a great event,” the 16-year-old said.

Mordes finished 59th with a time of 5:11.00.

“It’s a hard event so I’m happy with how I went today. It was a technical course, and the event is very different in what I’m used to with the obstacles on course, but it’s a good experience,” Mordes said.

Norway’s Nikolai Holmboe final time of 4:09.97 saw him take out gold in the men’s event, with Sweden’s Edvin Anger finishing in silver and Albin Aastroem taking bronze.

Tomorrow Evans, Fordham, Hinckfuss and Mordes will compete again in the Sprint Free event.

The freestyle skiing and snowboard competition also kicked off for the Women with Abi Harrigan and Mia Rennie in the ski slopestyle, and Lily Jekel and Alex Chen in the snowboard slopestyle.

Harrigan was the only Aussie to qualify through to the finals after putting down a top qualifying score of 65.50 to advance to the 12-skier final in 5th place.

Unfortunately, the three final runs didn’t go her way, as she had trouble landing the first jump. The 17-year-old finished 12th overall, but will return to the mountain two more times this week for the Big Air and Halfpipe competitions.

The competition was won by six-time Junior World Champion, 2019 Ski Halfpipe World Champion and the youngest champion in X Games history, Kelly Sildaru from Estonia, who lead the entire competition to take the win with a best score of 93.75.

Three-time World Cup medallist, China’s Eileen Gu Ailing, did challenge Sildaru in her third and final run, putting down a 93.25 for silver, ahead of Sweden’s Jennie-Lee Burmansson in bronze on 90.00.

Harrigan said it was a great experience to compete against such experienced skiers.

“I think it’s really good, I really like competing against them,” she said.

“It pushes you more and it’s good to have them around because they’re so positive all the time.”

Skier Rennie finished 15th in the slopestyle, as did Jekel in the snowboard slopestyle, with Chen in 18th.

Sunny Steel will represent Australia on Sunday, Day 10, in the men's snowboard slopestyle. Amber Essex, Josie Baff and Finn Sadler all make their Youth Olympic debuts on Day 10 in the Snowboard Cross.