In recent years Israeli athletes have become accustomed to seeing their Iranian counterparts choose withdrawal or disqualification over competing against them, but on Tuesday night, in a rare occurrence at the women's Giant Slalom event at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Israeli skier Noah Szollos shared the mountain with Iranian skier Atefeh Ahmadi.
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Hungarian-born Szollos, 19, is the daughter of a Jewish father and trains in Austria. She finished her first leg with a final time of 58.21 seconds, placing her 45th overall out of 88 contestants, 30 of whom failed to complete the course – including the reigning Olympic champion and overwhelming favorite to repeat, Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States.
As stated, a short while after Szollos completed her leg, the Iranian skier, Ahmadi, 21, finished the first round in 57th place with a time of 1:11.88 minutes.
Video: Olympic Committee of Israel
Szollos finished her second run with a time of 59.13 seconds and in 41st place in the overall standings with a combined time of 1:57.34 minutes. Ahmadi, meanwhile, failed to complete her second run. The gold medal was won by Petra Vlhova of Slovakia with a combined time of 1:44.98 minutes.
Austria's Katharina Liensberger snagged silver and Switzerland's Wendy Holdener claimed bronze.
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