Joh Shaw lines up for her second Olympic parallel giant slalom race tomorrow, with her body back to full strength, her technique strong and her preparation very solid.

Shaw is coming off a good 18th place result in Sudelfeld, her best for the season in the Olympic discipline.

After a week of training in Red Mountain she is ready to go, and coach Leigh Delahoy believes she is a podium prospect.

“Preparation has been going extremely well,” Delahoy says.

“We took off to Red Mountain to do some training, and conditions there were much the same as the conditions that we’re going to encounter here at the Olympics.”

“We were able to pick a board for these conditions out of the two boards we had, and we’re expecting it to hold extremely well.”

“Preparation in terms of technique has also been going very well. Coming back from injury, it’s been hassling her a little bit but in the last few weeks she’s been pain-free and her strength has been back to normal, so we’ve also got her technique back to how it was when she was ranking up in the top four.”

Although she finished 18th in Sudelfeld, she missed the finals by the barest of margins.

“The conditions (at the lead-up event to the Games) were absolutely atrocious.”

“It was snowy, it was foggy, it was soft .  . . the first run she was a bit nervous but managed to get in a good run. Then she went back up and really smoked it on the second run.”

“Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to put her through to qualification – if she had been on the other course she would have qualified – but it was a good boost for her to let them know that she is capable again, that everything is holding and she is strong enough to do it, so it was extremely good in those conditions to get the result that we did.”

The 2008/09 World Cup season has been remarkably even, with six skiers winning each of the seven events.

Nicolien Sauerbreij heads the standings after a win and two silver medals, but Germany’s Amelie Kober and Swiss skier Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli are shadowing the Dutch skier.

Kober, the reigning World Cup champion, has won twice this season – including at the event prior to the Games - and also claimed silver. As the silver medallist in Torino, she has also proved she can perform on the ultimate stage.

Maegert-Kohli has yet to compete in an Olympic arena, but has also stepped up when it counts, winning the 2009 parallel slalom world title.

Russia is also looking ominous, and has had three riders at the top of the podium this season and , 20-year-old Alena Zavarzina, Ekaterina Tudegesheva and Svetlana Boldykova, and all could make the podium here.

And although no riders from the traditionally powerful alpine snowboard nation of Austria have claimed gold in 2009/10, the 2009 World Cup champion Doris Guenther, 2009 World Champion Marion Kreiner and Heidi Neururer could figure in the medal mix, though the conditions, likely to be rather difficult, may not suit them.

Barry White
AOC-Cypress