CLARE MAN PATRICK McMillan wasn’t able to trouble the leading men’s Downhill racers, but completed the Olympic course with a time of 1:49.98 to finish 52nd overall.
McMillan’s time was a little over nine seconds off the dominant presence of Aksel Lund Svindal, who made it a Norwegian one-two on the podium as he narrowly beat compatriot Kjetil Jansrud to gold with a time of 1:40.25.
Swiss hope Beat Feuz took the bronze with a time .18 seconds slower than Svindal, 1:40.43.
“A little bit more was left on the course,” admitted 26-year-old McMillan.
“The (sunny) conditions probably took a little bit of time off and I lost a little bit of power towards the end. But the boys who won it are all in their mid-30s. They have 10 more years experience than me.
I can gaurantee that in four or eight years time, when we’re back here again, I’ll also have that experience and make a great result.
“When you put your mind to it you can do anything. Five years ago I said I wanted to become a skier and then go to the Olympics and now I’ve achieved that goal. You should never give up.”
McMillan, who finished ahead of only Hungary’s Marton Kekesi (1:51.72), will be back on the slopes tonight for the men’s Super G, which gets under way at 2am Irish time.
After a long waiting game to get underway in the Slalom (delayed until 1am tonight due to high winds) 20-year-old Tess Arbez tasted competitive action in the Giant Slalom this morning.
Arbez finished 50th overall with a total time of 2:40.24 over her two runs leaving her 20 seconds off the untouchable gold medal-winner Mikaela Shiffrin.
“It was really important to finish to the first run,” Arbez said.
I could only do the second run if I got down first time so that was really important because I never did the second run in that kind of race before.“I’m really happy to be there. I decided I cannot be sad if I made a mistake or something, to just have fun!”
Shiffrin was second-fastest going into round two with a time of 1:10.82 and backed it up with a 1:09.20.
Consistently blistering times were also set by Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel and Italy’s Federica Brignone to claim silver and bronze respectively.