Hanlon Uses All His Skills To Complete Bumpy Giant Slalom

It was a bumpy ride down the giant slalom course for Josh Hanlon and his fellow competitors, but the Australian sit skier did an incredible job to complete his two runs and finish 10th in a field of 37.

Hanlon improved his position from 13th after the morning run to score a top 10 finish and set himself up well for his pet event, the slalom, which will be contested on Sunday, the final day of the Games.

Speaking afterwards, Hanlon said it made sense to reevaluate the timing of the Games, which has been affected by warmer than ideal temperatures.

“Whether we bring it forward and we’re the ones going into the Village first, in January, say, before the Olympics, maybe that’s an option,” he said. “Because it’s bloody warm in March at the moment and it has been for the last few seasons. I don’t think we’ve really got any decent World Cup races in March the last few years.

“You’ve just got to go with it, really. We can talk about it. But yeah, we’ve just got to get on with it at the moment.”

Hanlon said organisers were doing the best they could, salting the snow to improve it’s skiing quality.

“They’ve got shovels and they’ve got slippers and they’re doing everything they can,” he said. “It’s just too warm to be trying to get a good ski race in. I think we definitely need to reevaluate the timing of it, for sure.”

Many in the field didn’t complete one or both of their runs. It’s especially hard for the sit skiers, who go last, after the vision impaired and standing classes.

“Very bumpy again, but I survived it and felt like I had a decent time,” he said.

“It wasn’t a very feel-good run. But it’s still nice to get a finish on the board.

“It was a bit of minefield getting down. There was lots of air. Just kind of jumping all over the shop.

“You got to be able to recover from getting bucked around like that and, yeah, it takes a lot of experience I guess to handle it. “

Hanlon said he was “super pumped” for the upcoming slalom, in which he earned a World Cup podium earlier this season.

By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia