Olympics – Freestyle skiing – Smith awarded ski cross bronze after FIS overturn yellow card

February 26, 2022

(Reuters) – Swiss skier Fanny Smith will be awarded the women’s ski cross bronze medal after her yellow card for an infringement in the Winter Olympics final was overturned by an appeals commission, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said on Saturday.

Smith, a bronze medallist at Pyeongchang 2018, was relegated to fourth after a prolonged review of the final resulted in the FIS jury deciding that she had impeded Germany’s Daniela Maier, with Maier taking the bronze.

Sweden’s Sandra Naeslund won gold in Zhangjiakou, while Canada’s Marielle Thompson claimed the silver.

“The Appeals Commission met four times and reviewed both video and written documentation for several hours and ultimately found that the contact was the result of a sequence of actions which happened in unison,” FIS said in a statement.

“The Appeals Commission found that the close proximity of the racers at that moment resulted in action that was neither intentional or avoidable.

“The jury decision should have been rendered as an official warning, which as written in the Guidelines on Intentional Contact, would lead to no sanction.”

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)