Alexander Steen Olsen doubles down with SL win at junior worlds
Norway’s Alexander Steen Olsen is the back-to-back junior world champion after his slalom victory on Wednesday. After sitting out the speed events and alpine combined, Steen Olsen capitalized on his recent Europa Cup momentum for double gold in the technical events.
Steen Olsen was hard to touch after two consistent and clean slalom runs. He opened up the day with the fastest run, 0.07 seconds ahead of Fabian Ax Swartz from Sweden. Josha Strum of Austria was sitting in third, half a second behind the two.
Those running early in the second run took advantage of smooth conditions to move up the rankings. Germany’s Linus Witte was sitting in fourth behind Strum and surpassed him for the bronze in the second run.
U.S. Team member Isaiah Nelson was the top finisher for North American, tied for 16th position. Logan Dunn was Canada’s top athlete in 34th.
“Today was a challenging day,” said Nelson. “The slalom hill is pretty difficult and takes a lot of courage to attack. Despite not putting down my best skiing in the slalom and GS races, overall it was a very fun and very busy week.”
Wednesday’s slalom concludes the 2022 FIS junior world championships. After a week of competition, Austria won the Mark Hodler trophy as the overall winners of the series. Reflecting on the week, Nelson is optimistic about the future despite feeling capable of more.
“Our men’s tech team, besides myself, is really young, so I am very optimistic about their chances in future junior world championships,” said Nelson. “Obviously on paper it may look like we are stronger in the speed events but I can guarantee you that we have some serious depth in tech that is definitely going to show.”
About the Author: Karina Schwartznau
