That’s got to hurt
A freestyle skier competing in the halfpipe event at the Winter Olympics on Thursday had a moment to forget as he crashed into a camera operator.
Finnish athlete Jon Sallinen was over halfway through his run before he misjudged one of his tricks – leading to a calamitous error which left both him and the camera op on the floor.
Losing control, Sallinen was then spotted soaring through the air before colliding into the camera operator, who had no time to move out of the way, as they both fell into the snow.
Thankfully both were okay as the cam op was able to get up to his quickly, whilst Sallinen was forced to continue and complete his run.
Wait for it 😬
Finland's Jon Sallinen gives the freeski halfpipe cameraman an extreme close-up.#Beijing2022 #BBCOlympics
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) February 17, 2022
As expected though, the judges were not impressed with his moment of madness and the Finnish athlete was awarded just 18 marks out of a possible 100 – which unsurprisingly meant he didn’t qualify for the next round.
Speaking after the event, Sallinen said: “I wasn’t even sure if I was gonna ski on my second run after my crash, I hope the cameraman is okay, I landed directly on him.
In fact, Sallinen’s mistake was so detrimental that he finished in last place out of a possible 23 competitors – with the best 12 advancing through to the final.
It was Sallinen’s first ever Winter Olympics and I’m sure it will be one that he remembers for a long while yet – just not for any of the right reasons.
Related links:
- Norwegian skiier loses 44 second lead after going wrong way down course
- 15-year-old Kamila Valieva lands historic quadruple jump at Winter Olympics
- Beijing 2022: Team GB haven’t won any medals yet but don’t panic
