Greta Small has completed the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships in Cortina d'Amprezzo, Italy, with a personal best performance in the alpine combined event.

The two time NSWIS Olympian finished in 15th place, bettering her previous best finish of 18th in the same event in 2015 at Vail/Beaver Creek.

Earlier in the week Small finished the downhill in 28th place and was 37th in the super-g.

"Good times in Cortina at my Fourth World Championships" Small posted after the race.

"After a year of uncertainty, coming back from injury and only a couple weeks of race preparation in the past two years, it was a joy and accomplishment to be at the start gate.

"Stoked with my best ever Worlds result of 15th in the combined.

"Thank you to all my supporters racing down Olympia Delle Tofane was fun."

Also in action at the World Championships was Snow Australia racer Hugh McAdam, who had to take part in the qualifier events in giant slalom and slalom. 

McAdam qualified in fifth place in the giant slalom, but unfortunately did not finish in the first run of the main event.

In the slalom qualifier, McAdam did not finish in the first run, missing out on qualifying for a start in the World Championship race.
 
IMAGE: Spectacular sunny conditions for Greta Small at the World Championships in Cortina, Italy © Greta Small Instagram

Bree Walker has claimed her third medal of the northern hemisphere winter, taking bronze in the final monobob event of the season in Königssee, Germany.

The podium performance moves the QAS athlete into second place on IBSF end of year rankings in the new Olympic sport which will make it's debut in Beijing 2022. 

Walker finished just 0.54 seconds behind Swiss sliders Melanie Hasler and Martina Fontanive who tied for first place.
 
"This season we set our standards high, despite there being a global pandemic and this resulted in our biggest and best season by far" Walker commented.

"Medals and top ten finishes against the most competitive fields the sport has seen in many years, so we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve for Australia."

"Hopes are that we can just go from strength to strength as a team.

"This will require a lot of hard work and dedication to our sport and finding sponsors to help us go even faster (we are going to need the support that’s for sure) but this season has really motivated us and we are going to put everything we have into this Olympic year."

Walker had planned to finish her two woman bobsleigh season at the final event of the World Cup season in Konigsee, but the event was cancelled due to a track temperature equipment malfunction.

With the season now finished, Walker will now return back to Australia.

IMAGE: Bree Walker celebrates with her third place trophy in Königssee © Bree Walker Instagram

QAS athlete Bree Walker has had a difficult week at the IBSF World Championships in Alttenberg, Germany, unable to finish in the monobob experiencing mechanical failure & rolling her Bobsled in the third heat.

The Altenberg track is notoriously unforgiving and rated as one of the most challenging on the global circuit. True to form it proved treacherous for a number of competitors in this years World Championships. 

At World Championship and Olympic sliding events, four heats take place to decided the winner, and after the first two heats on day one Walker was in 15th place, 2.11 seconds behind first place.

Racing in the third heat on the second day of competition, Walker had a great start recording the third fastest start time and was set for an improved run before her sled toppled over towards the end of the course. After sliding upside down for a section of the track, the sled did recover and Walker was able to complete her run ranked 18th overall after three heats.

After the incident in the previous run, Walker was forced to withdraw from the fourth and final heat due to mechanical breakage of her sled.

Walker will now compete in the final monobob world series event next weekend in Konigssee, Germany, on February 20.

IMAGE: Bree Walker in the start gate at Altenberg © IBSF TV

Two time Olympian Greta Small has competed in the FIS Alpine World Championship speed events in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with weather impacting the first week of the event. .

After a 3 day weather delay, conditions finally improved and the women's super-g was the opening event at the World Championships, with the NSWIS skier finishing in 37th, 5.49 seconds back from the event winner Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland.

In the downhill Small was the 28th skier across the line, 3.41 second behind Corinne Suter who made it a Swiss double in the women's speed events.

Small has one event left in Cortina, the alpine combined event on tonight. The format for the alpine combined event is a super-g event up first, with athletes then competing in the slalom, with the times from both events added to determine the winner.

Snow Australia racer Hugh McAdam will be making his World Championship debut in the giant slalom and slalom events.

McAdam will need to compete in the qualifying event in each discipline, with the top-25 advancing to the medal events.

The schedule for McAdam in Cortina is
Giant slalom qualification event - Thursday, February 18
Giant slalom medal event - Friday, February. 19
Slalom qualifying event - Saturday, February 20
Slalom medal event - Sunday, February 21
 
IMAGE: After the first three days were impacted by bad weather, it was great to see the return of sunny skies in Cortina © FIS Alpine

The two-woman Bobsleigh team of QAS pilot Bree Walker and breakwoman Sarah Blizzard have been unable to compete in the opening event of the IBSF World Championships in Altenberg, Germany, after two crashes in training.

Walker posted on social medial the decision to withdraw from the two-woman event.

"I’m never one to give up, I always find a way to make it happen. Our team is always the ones that get back up, get back in and goes again. But as I have grown as an athlete I have also learnt when pushing through could do more harm then good.
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"In preparation for the 2021 World Championship in Altenberg, Sarah and I had two rough crashes that left us feeling pretty beat up.

"This track demands respect and with not having a spare teammate and the way we were feeling we had to weigh up whether competing this weekend would bring us the results we knew we were capable of.
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"So it is with a heavy heart, we have decided not to race in the two-man event this weekend. We had to think about our own health as we still have a lot that we want to achieve in the next year leading towards the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Good luck to everyone who is competing this weekend and we will see you back next week for the Monobob event."
 
Walker will be back in action competing in the Monobob event at the World Championships later this week on February 13-14.

Walker is the equal world number one in Monobob after the last event in Austria, and the QAS athlete will be back in action competing at the World Championships in that event later this week on February 13-14.
 
IMAGE: Bree Walker and Sarah Blizzard in Winterberg earlier in the season © IBSF / Viesturs Lacis

Snow Australia has announced two athletes who will represent the Australian team at the upcoming 2021 FIS Alpine World Championships including two-time NSWIS Olympian Greta Small and World Championships debutant Hugh McAdam.

Twenty-year old Hugh McAdam will join top Australian Alpine skier Greta Small in Cortina (Italy), where the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships start next Monday and run until the 21 February.

Small recently made yet another World Cup comeback from a torn ACL injury, the third major knee injury in her career, and will compete in the Downhill, Super G and Alpine Combined in her fourth FIS World Championships.

McAdam will have to make his way into the Giant Slalom and Slalom World Championships races through the qualifying events, scheduled on the 18 February and 20 February respectively. McAdam needs to finish in the top-25 in those races to advance and start in the medal events.

AUSTRALIAN ATHLETES COMPETITION SCHEDULE

2021 FIS Ski World Championships - Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

    Monday, Feb 8 - Greta Small, Alpine Combined - Women
    Tuesday, Feb. 9 - Greta Small, Super-G - Women
    Saturday, Feb. 13 - Greta Small, Downhill - Women
    Thursday, Feb. 18 - Hugh McAdam, Giant Slalom Qualification Event - Men
    Friday, Feb. 19 - Hugh McAdam, Giant Slalom - Men*
    Saturday, Feb. 20 - Hugh McAdam, Slalom Qualification Event - Men
    Sunday, Feb. 21 - Hugh McAdam, Slalom - Men*

*if qualified
 
IMAGE: Greta Small carving up the slopes last season at Club Med resort in Valmorel © Chris Hocking/OWIA

Article courtesy of Snow Australia