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Sport2 min(s) read
A Bulgarian skier has taken to Instagram to vent her frustration at an incident that saw her run in the slalom being interrupted by a course worker.
Eva Vukadinova was competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Wednesday, February 9, when she had to stop in the middle of her run down the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Center course.
As reported by 7 News, Vukadinova had to swerve around a male course worker who was trying to get the gate key used to screw the poles in the gates. It was left on the course when one of the poles was being fixed.
Due to the unexpected obstacle, the 20-year-old was given a re-run and finished 49th after the first round. She was unable to complete her next run and was ultimately disqualified from the competition.
Confiding in her nearly 5,000 Instagram followers after the disappointing result, the young athlete wrote: "I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TODAY. First of all, a lot of emotions are going through me right now. I cannot even describe what i felt after that first run.
"I thought 'Why me?', 'Why didn’t that happen to any of the top 30 girls?', 'Could that even happen to any of them?', 'Is that even fair?'.
"I don’t know what the right answer to those questions is. All I know is that even with a fractured hand, I skied very good (before that guy decided just to leave the metal on the gate). I showed myself that I can, that i am strong, that i can get through anything!"
Vukadinova went on to say that despite hailing from a "ski nation", she has a right to speak her mind and doesn't believe being granted a re-run makes up for the interruption that took place in her initial run.
She explained: "Not when you have to ski down to the chair lift, go up, go down the start (with my race ski) and start almost immediately. Sure, I may be not a top-level skier or fighting for the podium, but I also worked a lot to get here!!! Don’t I at least deserve the same CHANCE like everyone else?"
Calling out the Olympic committee specifically, she spoke further about her disappointment that something like this would occur at a top-level sports event. And according to Vukadinova, the only silver lining in all of this is that she didn't break her legs during the incident.
She concluded her post: "I am sad, really sad, but also happy and proud of myself that I was fighting till the end. I will also never get rid of the smile on my face, cause nothing can bring me down. I am beyond thankful for all the support!"
