“Why me?” Bulgarian skier blasts Olympic officials after incident during her run

2022 Beijing Olympics – Alpine Skiing – Women’s Slalom Run 1 – National Alpine Skiing Centre, Yanqing district, Beijing, China – February 9, 2022. Eva Vukadinova of Bulgaria reacts during her run. REUTERS/Denis BalibouseBulgarian downhill skier Eva Vukadinova slammed the Olympics and officials after a course worker truncated her first run on Wednesday due to a technical issue. A gate key had been left on one of the slalom poles – dangerous for skiers who pivot off the poles as they fly downhill.“I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TODAY,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post. “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?’.”The 20-year-old Vukadinova was able to redo her run, but with her adrenaline now virtually expired, she was unable to place.2022 Beijing Olympics – Alpine Skiing – Women’s Slalom Run 1 – National Alpine Skiing Centre, Yanqing district, Beijing, China – February 9, 2022. Eva Vukadinova of Bulgaria in action. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse“I got my re-run, we all know it’s not the same, when you have to ski down to the chair lift, go up, go down the start 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?” she posted.Vukadinova was also taken aback by the officials indifference in the incident.“One thing is to be on course to fix something, other thing is to leave a heavy metal like that on the gate. And on top of that, to pretend that it’s completely normal.”Vukadinova, who was also impeded at these Games with a fractured hand, said she was just happy she didn’t “break my legs on that gate.”“I am beyond disappointed and I can’t believe that this happened on the top level sports event like the Olympics.”

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