GB’s Andrew Young Takes Silver and Enters the Sporting History Books
16th December 2020
Last modified on May 20th, 2021
It’s the best ever result for a GB nordic skier and follows his bronze last weekend. And our best alpine skier Dave Ryding has started his season well with a top 10.
“It’s another FIS Cross Country World Cup, another Podium for Andrew Young!” was how GB Snowsport reacted.
“Congratulations on your second place finish in Dresden. The best ever result of a British Cross Country athlete.
Andrew Young even finished the sprint race with one pole after the other broke on his first lap.
“Super happy to be back on the podium! A 6 day wait is much better than 5 years,” he said after the race, referring back to hos podium of the previous weekend.
His success comes after the recent withdrawals of skiers from Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Athletes from these countries, three of the best cross-country skiing nations in the world, are missing all December fixtures from the World Cup calendar due to fears surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrew Young experienced a broken pole and the podium seemed out of sight when heading into the second lap of the course in the final.
However, he did not give up and impressively fought back to get on the podium.
He was just 0.53 seconds behind the winner Federico Pellegrino from Italy, and Andrew Young writes sporting history for the British Cross-Country team, achieving the best World Cup result ever.
Action continues in Dresden on Sunday with the teamsprint semi-finals and final.
It is the fourth World Cup podium of 28-year-old Andrew Young’s career.
In April 2019 in Quebec he came 4th on the day in the 15km pursuit at the World Cup Finals.
There was an error in the scoring and the was promoted to 3rd place on appeal.
It follows on from his success last weekend.
All eyes on Monday were on Dave Ryding as his World Cup season got underway in Alta Badia in Italy.
The first slalom race of the season is usually at Levi in Finland in November but the men’s event was cancelled due to covid-19 restrictions.
This was going to be an early indication of his form and the first signs are good.
He finished 10th.
Read our full report:
Ryding had a disappointing season last winter by his own high standards.
“I went 12 rounds with the best guys in the world.. I fought, I tripped up, I achieved, I fell, I failed, I got up and I battled with everything I had until the end,” he said as coronavirus brought an early end to the season.
” It was a shame we couldn’t have one last dance. As the dust settles I walk away with 11th in the standings. It was a roller coaster year but I am proud of my commitment and fight!”
Dave is GB’s best-ever alpine skier.
He has achieved 9 British Slalom Titles, competed at 3 Winter Olympic Games.
Career Highlights:
2nd- World Cup Slalom, Kitzbühel, AUT, 2017
2nd- World Cup City Event, Oslo, NOR, 2019
4th- World Cup Slalom, Madonna di Campiglio, ITA, 2018
1x- Europa Cup Slalom Champion 2012/13
Here at PlanetSKI we were cheering him on at the Schladming night slalom in Austria last season as he came 8th:
Schladming night slalom. Image © PlanetSKI.
Alpine
FIS World Cup – Val Gardena (Italy) 16th – 19th December
GB Snowsport Competing Athletes:
Jack Gower
FIS Europa Cup – Hippach (Austria) 16th & 17th December
GB Snowsport Competing Athletes:
Sarah Woodward
Jess Anderson
FIS World Cup – Alta Badia (Italy) 20th & 21st December
GB Snowsport Competing Athletes:
Charlie Raposo (GS)
Dave Ryding (SL) – World Class Programme Athlete
Laurie Taylor (SL) – World Class Programme Athlete
Billy Major (SL) – First World Cup
Cross Country
FIS World Cup – Dresden (Germany) 19th – 20th December
GB Snowsport Competing Athletes:
James Clugnet – World Class Programme Athlete
Andrew Musgrave – World Class Programme Athlete
Andrew Young – World Class Programme Athlete
