'Absolute joke:' Canadian skier rips horrid conditions at Olympics
Canada’s Reece Howden entered the final day of ski competitions at the Olympics as a legitimate medal hopeful.
Instead, his day ended with a tirade about the conditions during the men’s ski cross final.
Howden’s day ended when he finished fourth among four skiers in his heat during quarter-final action. After his Olympic dreams were dashed, he didn’t hold anything back when it pertained to conditions on the hill.
“It is ridiculous,” Howden said. “This is a joke.”
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“I bet you, I don’t know what the times are, but it’s got to be like 10 to 15 seconds slower.”
During the medal-deciding run, Italian gold-medal winner Simone Deromedis had a time of approximately one minute and 18 seconds.
Howden had the best time during qualification earlier in the day when the weather conditions were better, posting a time of one minute and 6.13 seconds.
So, Howden wasn’t wrong in his assessment.
“It’s a completely different course,” he said, “Like, if I waited four years for this, I’ll wait another four ’cause this is a joke.”
The Chilliwack, B.C. native elaborated on why he believed the track was so horrendous later in the day on Saturday.
“It’s snowing so hard, and just the track is dead slow.
“Honestly, at this point, I’m happy I’m not involved in this race because this is ridiculous. Like, this is not ski cross.”
“Olympics is supposed to be the best of the best, the peak of our sport. And, like I said before, I’ll wait four more years because this is an absolute joke.”
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These were Howden’s second Olympic Games. Back in 2022, he finished ninth in the men’s ski cross event.
This was the first time in the history of the Olympics that no Canadian would win a medal in ski cross.