Radamus shares same fate as majority of Slalom skiers at the Milan Cortina Olympics

River Radamus, skis on his shoulder, exiting the Finish Area of the Milan Cortina Slalom. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

CORTINA, Italy — USA’s River Radamus was one of 49 athletes who did not finish (DNF) in the Mens Alpine Slalom at the Milan Cortina Olympics in the first run.

A much more normal number of four DNFed in the second run, and only 39 athletes completed the event. 

The gold medal went to Switzerland, the silver to Austria, and the bronze to Norway.

In the finish area after the first run, Radamus addressed questions to some news outlets, including TownLift, if he thought the continuously piling-up snowfall or the course set was the bigger contributing factor to so many racers’ exit.

“Either, on its own, would be all right, I think, and I would still say this is all right, it’s a ski race. Somebody’s got to win. But the combination of the course setting with really challenging offset sections and the groove that’s establishing and the snow that’s falling makes it really challenging to compete overall,” Radamus said. 

Two-time Olympian, Radamus, the lone American in the race, is from Edwards, Colorado and skis for the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail. He’s a three-time Youth Olympic Games gold medalist, who has started a foundation to provide opportunities to young athletes who need financial assistance to attend camps and comps.

He continued and discussed the Winter Olympics on his home soil in Utah 2034

“It’s gonna be great. You can see through the Games these last couple of weeks in Alpine and everywhere else. How strong the Italian Team has been. They’ve been competing with a lot of pride, and the whole country’s rallied behind them. I’m hoping for the similar things to happen down the road. I know, already, our Team is thinking about it and trying to build in the right way so that we can peak and defend home soil the best we can,” Radamus said.

The above photo illustrates how the snow stopped at the Slalom Venue mere minutes after the first run ended. 

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Walking to the event with his wife, Amber, and their flag-draped baby Alexis in a chest carrier, is Vincent Corrado, the U.S. Ski Team Men’s speed physical trainer whose based out of the Center of Excellence in Park City. He told TownLift that Radamus has been training in slalom all around Italy for the last couple of weeks.