For more than a century of Winter Olympic sport, athletes have dealt with defeat in almost every possible way: tears, tantrums, breaking things, breaking down. But on Monday afternoon in Bormio, the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath processed his grief in a novel way after the men’s slalom gold medal suddenly slipped away. First, he threw his ski poles as far as he could. Then he hid in the woods.
“I just needed to get away from everything,” he said. “I thought I would get some peace and quiet, which I didn’t because photographers and police found me out in the woods. I just needed some time for myself.”
His reaction was entirely understandable. The 25-year-old had hoped to honour his grandfather, who died on the day of the opening ceremony. Despite skiing in a blizzard, his opening run was smooth and clinical as he stopped the clock on 56.14sec.
That gave him an advantage of 0.59 over the Swiss world champion, Loïc Meillard, into the second leg. Several of his rivals – including Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who won the giant slalom to give Brazil a first Winter Olympic medal in their history – had crashed out.
It was there for the taking, but then it all went horribly wrong as McGrath straddled a gate. “I’m normally a guy that’s very good when it comes to perspective on things,” he said.
“If I don’t ski well in a race, I can at least tell myself that I’m healthy and my family’s healthy and the people I love are here. So that’s nice, but that’s not been the case. I’ve lost someone I love so much and that makes it really hard.”
The ski poles went. TV footage then showed him lying on his back, occasionally putting his hands over his face, on the side of the course, before he trudged into the woods.
“A mix of shock and everything in between,” he said. “I haven’t really experienced anything like it before. It’s not the worst moment of my life, but it’s the worst moment of my career. I was hoping I was going to be able to crown off this tough period with something good today.
“I had to really stand through so much tough stuff and stay really strong. That makes it an extra tough one.”
McGrath, who was born in Vermont and moved to Norway when he was two with his American father, Felix, and Norwegian mother, Selma Lie, denied his grandfather’s death had had a negative effect on his skiing. “With everything that’s been going on, I’ve really struggled to handle myself these past two weeks and I was so proud of my first run today,” he said.
“It’s affected me a tremendous amount, but it did not affect my focus. I honestly think he was the only reason why I was able to lead the first run and lead by so much. It takes a lot of courage and it’s really tough to stand there and think of him and want to perform when everything feels so small.”
His mistake meant that victory went to Meillard, who became the first Swiss men’s Olympic slalom champion since 1948 with a combined time of 1min 53.61sec, and he had a few words of consolation for McGrath. “Atle Lie would have deserved it as well. He was the best skier this season, but that’s part of slalom, that’s part of sport.”
Fabio Gstrein of Austria took silver, 0.35 back, and Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway won bronze. Britain’s Dave Ryding ended his career with a 17th-place finish in his fifth Winter Olympics, while his compatriot Billy Major was 16th.
McGrath, though, was left to contemplate what might have been. “It’s hard to think that the next time I’ll be able to ski the Olympics, I will be 29 years old,” he said. “I gave myself the absolute best opportunity you could today. I skied so great and I still couldn’t get it done. That’s what really hurts.
“I need quite a bit of time to process this and it’s going to be extremely tough. We’ll see how it goes, but at least I’m surrounded by great people who love me and who I love. I’m happy they’ll be here for me.
“I’ve spent my time in the woods, now I’m going to spend time with the people I love, and that’s all I need.”
