The thrill of victory for Norwegians at the Winter Olympics over the weekend turned into the agony of defeat on Monday morning. Slalom skier Atle Lie McGrath had medal prospects but ran into trouble and literally stalked off the course while a jubilant Swiss coach celebrated his own skier’s success.
McGrath led the slalom race but had to give it up along the way after several errors. Nearby stood a coach who became jubilant since McGrath’s agony led to victory for his own skier, Loic Meillard, who wound up with the gold meal. Fabio Gstrein from Austria won the silver and Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway won the bronze.
Meillard’s jubilation clearly irritated McGrath who was already quite literally down in the dumps. He reacted by casting off his skis, throwing his poles off to the side and then stomping in his ski boots across the groomed slope and another adjacent to it, before throwing himself down in the snow on the fringe of the forest.
For video of the sequence of events, click here (external link to NRK’s coverage, in Norwegian.)
McGrath clearly didn’t like landing in the DNF (Did Not Finish) category along with skiers from Armenia, Lebanon, Uzbekistan and France. Two other Norwegians finished fourth (Timon Haugen) and seventh (Eirik Hystad Solberg).
One of NRK’s commentators called the video of McGrath “quite absurd pictures of disappointment.” Others noted how McGrath was in mourning over the death of his grandfather just before the Olympics began. Bronze winner Kristoffersen told NRK that he had “mixed feelings for both Timon and Atle” but was disappointed because “we were here to take gold.”
NewsinEnglish.no staff
