‘Who’s the f***ing judge?’: Olympian fumes at controversial disqualification

There was huge drama in Beijing after Switzerland’s Fanny Smith was robbed of an Olympic medal in the women’s ski cross final.

Switzerland’s ski cross head coach criticised Beijing Olympics judges after athlete Fanny Smith lost out on a bronze medal when she was penalised for kicking a rival in Thursday’s women’s final.

Smith was yellow carded in the gold-medal race for making what judges deemed to be intentional contact with Germany’s Daniela Maier as they raced towards the finish.

The pair collided and Smith crossed the line in third ahead of Maier, but after a lengthy wait the Swiss was eventually classified as “ranked as last in their heat” — the equivalent of disqualification.

According to Eurosport, Smith asked stewards after the decision was handed down: “Who is the f*****g judge? This is a joke!

“This wasn’t on purpose! My ski was on the edge. Does this judge know how to ski? They have no idea.”

Maier herself, despite being promoted on to the podium, was disappointed with the outcome: “What? What? What? No! No, no, no, no, no! This was correct! This was totally normal skiing.”

Fanny Smith was unimpressed with the outcome. Photo by Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images

Fanny Smith of Team Switzerland, Sami Kennedy-Sim of Team Australia, Brittany Phelan of Team Canada and Daniela Maier of Team Germany compete. Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images

Co-commentator Ian Findlasaid: “That is a huge shame for Smith. I’m not sure about it but that is ski cross racing. Neslund is the winner here. She takes the gold medal. Thompson will take silver and Maier a surprise bronze medal.

“Smith with that little move before the final jump caused a destabilisation to Maier. It’s relegated Smith. The result will stand but Neslund is the Olympic gold medallist at Beijing 2022.”

Swiss head coach Ralph Pfaeffli said the 29-year-old was too distraught to speak to reporters after the race, but he said he believed the contact was “clearly incidental and not intentional”.

“They say she kicks sideways to slow down Daniela Maier but no ski cross competitors would ever try to sidekick while riding on rollers or over jumps into another person,” said Pfaeffli.

“That’s a complete misunderstanding.”

Former English English freestyle Emily Sarsfield tweeted: “Totally shocked at that call. Fanny Smith deserved that bronze medal … there was nothing intentional in that, just avoiding landing on Mariell!”

Huge controversy in the women's ski cross final with Switzerland's Fanny Smith stripped of the bronze medal for an incident in the race.

Germany's Daniela Maier, who will now receive the bronze medal, almost looks as if she doesn't want it and is shocked it's hers.#Beijing2022

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) February 17, 2022

The race was won by Sweden’s Sandra Naeslund with Canada’s Marielle Thompson taking the silver and Maier bronze.

Pfaeffli said the Swiss team were considering appealing, but believed “the result will never change”.

Maier said she would need to watch a replay before she could judge whether it was a fair result, but she had nothing but sympathy for Smith.

“I’m really sorry for Fanny because it’s always a weird feeling,” she said.

“What really happened, I don’t know. I just saw that Fanny had more speed than Marielle and she had to decide where to go — then I am losing my balance.”

The athletes were made to wait over five minutes after the race before the result was made official.

Naeslund said she “didn’t really understand” what the judges were looking at.

Sometimes it takes time but not this long, I guess, but it’s also an Olympic final so for sure they want to do it right,” she said.

“Sometimes there is those accidents where you can’t really do much.

“It’s close skiing and it’s kind of hard to tell and hard to say who did right and wrong.”

— with AFP