At the end of November last year, Switzerland's Ryan Regutz had a somewhat depressed time in Zhangjiakou.
At that time, the first stop of the 2021-2022 Freestyle Steeplechase Pursuit World Cup was held at Genting Ski Park. He finished first in qualifying, but didn't play well behind the line, finishing in 25th place. You know, the freestyle ski tracking competition of the Beijing Winter Olympics can be played on this field, will this setback indicate a bad season?
But Ryan Reguez, 29, was quick to give an answer. Starting from the Italian leg at the end of December last year, he reached the final round in five consecutive World Cup matches, winning two championships, a runner-up and a third place, and another fourth place, especially in the two competitions near the Beijing Winter Olympics, he was the first place in the preliminary round plus the first place in the final, showing a good state.
In this way, he came to China and participated in the Winter Olympic Games for the first time. On February 18, he again finished first in a qualifier with 32 players. He then finished first in his group in both the quarter-finals and the quarter-finals, but encountered a bit of a challenge in the semi-finals, and in the match against Sweden's Eric Moberger, he fell behind, but the second place in the group did not affect the final. In the other semi-finals, Reguez's Swiss teammate Alex Fiva and russian Olympic Committee player and bronze medalist Sergei Rizik of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics squeezed out 35-year-old defending champion Brady Lehmann, nicknamed "Wombat". "I'd love to keep getting a medal or winning again." Lehmann, who finished sixth, said: "I've been through tough races in the last two years, all kinds of injuries and difficulties, many times I thought I didn't have a chance to defend the gold medal anymore, but I ended up here and I'm really proud of myself. ”
Reguez's opponents in the final were not good stubble. In addition to Eric Mobel, who overwhelmed himself in the semi-finals, Sergei Rizik won the freestyle ski track at the World Cup in Zhangjiakou at the end of November last year. Alex Fiva is a veteran of two Winter Olympics. But Reguez finally laughed to the end. He had given up alpine skiing because he had not been able to join the national team at the age of 18, but after a brief stint as a draftsman, he found that his biggest passion was freestyle slalom chase, and he couldn't believe his performance after winning the championship. "What a crazy way! You may be struck twice by lightning, but it's harder to become an Olympic champion or even a medalist. This is not true. He said, "I'm not a draftsman for the time being." I've been a professional skier for 5 years, depending on how I perform on the field, and after that, I'll go back to my old business. ”