Freeski athlete Ruby Andrews has battled through a severe heel injury to place 5th in the halfpipe at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games.
The Queenstown athlete arrived at Leysin Mountain on crutches this morning, after sustaining the injury just two days ago during training.
Andrews was unsure whether she’d be able to compete but managed to put a run together during the qualification round.
“It was pretty sore, I came up on crutches and did a warm up then put my boots on. I did one qualification run and scraped through to finals so yeah was stoked,” said Andrews.
[embed width="480" height="270" class="leftAlone" thumbnail="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g7ctp2N6XWo/hqdefault.jpg?r"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ctp2N6XWo[/embed]
Dosed up on painkillers the 15-year-old put together another two runs for a best score of 66.00, to claim fifth place.
“I was kind of nervous because I didn’t want to cause any more damage to myself.
“I definitely could’ve skied better if I wasn’t injured but overall I’m stoked with how I skied today”.
Andrews will now focus on her recovery and will not compete in the women’s big air event tomorrow.
In the men’s freeski and snowboard slopestyle Luca Harrington and Mitch Davern qualified for the finals while Ben Barclay and Max McDonald bowed out in the qualification round.
15-year-old Harrington managed a best score of 67.33 in the freeski final to place 10th overall.
“This has been one of the best days of my life, skiing against these athletes has been incredible and I’ve made so many amazing memories,” said Harrington.
In the snowboard finals Mitch Davern was unable to put a clean run together, finishing 10th with a score of 24.33.
“I wasn’t quite in the zone for the finals but I gave it everything I had and that’s all I can ask really,” said Davern.
Above: Mitch Davern competing
Luca Harrington and Max McDonald will contest the men's halfpipe tomorrow.
Meanwhile speed skater Ethan De Rose placed 10th in the 500m event with a personal best time of 0:42.689s.
In the satellite village of St Moritz Dunedin luge athletes Hunter Burke and Ella Cox competed in the mixed nation relay. The New Zealanders combined with Chinese Taipei to finish 8th.
Winter Youth Olympic Games coverage is available on Sky Sport.