PYEONGCHANG (Reuters) – Switzerland’s Lara Gut crashed into a photographer after a spectacular wipeout in the women’s giant slalom on Thursday but neither of them were hurt and the speed specialist said she would be fine for the super-G in two days’ time.
Seventeen seconds into her run, Gut seemed to catch one of the early gates with the tip of a ski, causing her to hurtle off the course and send photographers scrambling to escape her path.
“No, I’m OK, I’m OK. I asked the photographer if he was OK too and he said he was. I think it’s getting scary to be a photographer on skiing hills,” Gut joked later with reporters.
She won an Olympic bronze in the downhill in Sochi four years ago, and in 2016 became the first Swiss woman to win the overall World Cup title since Vreni Schneider in 1995.
Despite struggling for full fitness this season after suffering a knee injury, she currently tops the World Cup super-G rankings and sits seventh in the downhill.
“I think I just went a little bit too early on my inside ski but it’s not something new that I’m struggling a bit in GS (giant slalom) this year,” she said.
“My Olympics aren’t over after 17 seconds. I’ll be back racing again on Saturday.”
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Rory Carroll; Editing by John O’Brien)
