Guest part of golden weekend for GB snow stars

Alpine Skiing 22 Mar 21

Charlie Guest completed a medal-laden weekend for Great Britain’s snowsport stars as she claimed a third Europa Cup slalom gold medal of her career.

Having triumphed in Folgaria, Italy in 2019 and Hasliberg, Switzerland in 2020, Guest added success in Reiteralm, Austria to her CV.

Her first-run time of 47.70 seconds placed her third at the halfway stage before a scintillating second run of 55.67s ensured a benchmark of 1:43.37 was laid down.

Marie-Therese Sporer, who was second after the first run, couldn’t overhaul the Brit as she finished 0.44s back before halfway leader Elsa Fermbaeck came agonisingly close to bettering Guest’s time but the Swede finished 0.07s behind, to take silver.

The Europa Cup is alpine skiing’s second-tier tour but Guest has also impressed at event on the top-tier World Cup this season – notching a career-best 16th-place finish in the slalom at Are, Sweden less than a fortnight ago.

With less than a year to go until the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, the Scot is rounding into form at the right time as she aims for a second Olympic appearance, having come 33rd in the women’s slalom in PyeongChang in 2018.

Guest’s exploits were part of a successful weekend for GB’s snowsporters as snowboard cross world champion Charlotte Bankes, 16-year-old freestyle skier Kirsty Muir and fellow teenage freestyle skier Zoe Atkin all won World Cup medals, while skier Billy Major claimed the Europa Cup slalom tour title.

Guest was also the first athlete to take part in our brand-new vlog series Destination Winter earlier in 2021 as she took us behind the scenes of her year to the Beijing 2022 Games.

The 27-year-old also recently revealed she has been diagnosed with palindromic rheumatism, a condition that randomly affects her joints at any given time.

Yet, with those illnesses now largely under control, she is putting in the best skiing performances of her career.