Beijing 2022

Skiing siblings hit the slopes for Israel in Olympic debut at Beijing

Barnabas Szollos completes the men’s downill in 30th place, while his sister Noa Szollos crashes out of her second run in the women’s Giant Slalom

By Amy Spiro

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7 February 2022, 2:25 pmUpdated at 11:06 pm

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Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel

Israel's Barnabas Szollos competes in the men's downhill final during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing on February 7, 2022. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Noa and Barnabas Szollos, a pair of Hungarian-Israeli skiers representing Israel at the Beijing 2020 Winter Games, each made their Olympic debut on Monday as they hit the ski slopes.

Barnabas, 23, competed in the rescheduled men’s downhill competition, finishing in 30th position out of the 43 athletes. The gold was won by Switzerland’s Beat Feuz, while France’s Johan Clarey took silver and Austria’s Matthias Mayer bronze.

Szollos completed the event with a time of 1:46.88, compared to 1:42.69 for the gold-medal winner.

“Finally here after so many years of training and hard work,” he posted on Instagram from the opening ceremony on Friday. “Now it’s time to race and enjoy the Games.”

Barnabas is slated to compete in the Super-G event on Tuesday, and three additional events throughout the games.

His younger sister, Noa, 19, also made her Olympic debut Monday in the women’s Giant Slalom. In the first run, Noa finished in 42nd place out of 82 athletes, with a time of 1:04.90, 7.34 seconds off the lead. But in the second run, she did not finish, falling about halfway down the slope and finishing out of the rankings. She did not appear to be injured.

Israel’s Noa Szollos competes in the first run of the women’s giant slalom during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing on February 7, 2022. (Jeff PACHOUD / AFP)

Later, Noa reposted footage of her fall onto her Instagram story, adding a GIF poking fun at herself.

Twenty-two other skiers also failed to complete the women’s Giant Slalom on Monday, including American two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin. Gold in the event went to Sweden’s Sara Hector, silver to Italy’s Federica Brignone and bronze to Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami.

Noa is scheduled to compete in the women’s slalom on Wednesday, and the Super-G on Friday.

Alpine skiing is considered an event so speedy and dangerous to begin with that it’s the only one where athletes usually are given three opportunities to take practice runs before a race.

Vladislav Bykanov of Israel starts in his heat of the men’s 1000-meter race during the short track speedskating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 5, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

On Saturday, Israeli speed skater Vladislav Bykanov competed in a qualifying round in the 1000m event, but did not advance. He will be competing in the 500m and 1500m events in the coming week.

Figure skater Alexi Bychenko is slated to compete on Tuesday, while pairs skaters Hailey Kops and Evgeni Krasnopolski won’t hit the ice for another 10 days.

AP contributed to this report.