Double gold: Spain dominates Alpine Combined

“I talked to my mum last night and told her I wanted to be first today – and so I did!”

Spain’s Albert Ortega was true to his words – and surely did his mother proud – on Monday as he captured gold in the men’s alpine combined at the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games.

Ortega was ranked sixth after Monday’s Super G – the first portion of the alpine combined event – and put together an incredible performance in today’s slalom to move to first place overall. He remained in the pole position after crossing the finish line as none of the five medal contenders still waiting at the start line managed to beat his combined time.

“I‘ve been training slalom a lot this year and I skied really good today, so I‘m really happy to win the gold medal here,” said Ortega, who is studying at the Open University of Cataluna in Barcelona.

Taking silver was Lithuania’s Andrej Drukarov ahead of Jan Zabystran from the Czech Republic. Super G gold medallist Zabystran was leading after the first leg in his favourite discipline but struggled in the slalom and fell to third place.

“It didn’t exactly go as I planned, I was hoping for the win, but did quite a few mistakes on the course today, so I‘m glad I didn’t ski out and still got the bronze medal,” Zabystran said.

“The snow here is a bit different than in Europe, it’s icier and drier,“ added the bronze medallist, who studies at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and had never set foot in the United States before these FISU Games. “But I really like the resort at Whiteface Mountain, the slopes are the same as in the 1980 Olympics, so they are on a World Cup level.”

Later on Monday, Celia Abad triumphed in the women’s event to make it a perfect double for the Spanish delegation. Abad was already in the lead after the Super-G and didn’t let anyone get past her in the slalom.

“I came here today to win, but there are always things that can happen, so I‘m really happy about the result and thankful for everyone who helped me getting there.”

Witnessing Ortega‘s win a few hours before her own race motivated Abad, who is representing the University of Basque Country.

“It’s a really good day for Spain and especially alpine skiing in Spain today. We were working so hard to be among the best athletes of the world. We for sure will celebrate this tonight.”

Despite looking like strong medal contenders for the mixed team event coming up on Thursday, Spain will not be able to compete.

“We‘re only three athletes here and you need to have four,” Abad explained. “But I‘m sure that for the next years, we will come up with more athletes and fight for gold.”

Coming in second place on the women’s side was Julia Socquet Dagoreau of France ahead of Germany’s Leonie Floetgen, who celebrated her birthday with a bronze-medal effort.

“I had no idea how the other girls are racing slalom, so it was rather unexpected to make the podium today,” Floetgen said. “I made some mistakes right at the beginning of the course so I was very super surprised I still made it to the podium. Winning bronze on my birthday – it´s just super cool and I’m really happy.”

The next medal events in alpine skiing will take place on Tuesday with the women`s giant slalom, followed by the men’s giant slalom on Wednesday.

Written by Annika Saunus, FISU Young Reporter

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