Russian freestyle skier Smirnova wins gold at 2021 World Championship in dual moguls

MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. Russian freestyle skier Anastasia Smirnova won gold on Tuesday at the 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships event in women’s dual moguls competition in Kazakhstan’s Almaty. Her teammate Viktoria Lazarenko took the silver and Kazakhstan’s Anastasia Gorodko raced to win the bronze. This is second medal for 18-year-old Smirnova at the 2021 World Championship. On Monday she clinched bronze in women’s moguls. Smirnova’s gold is the first ever for Russian freestyle skiers in women’s dual moguls at the world championships and Russia’s best result previously was the silver of Marina Cherkasova in 2003. The 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championship is hosted by a number of countries, namely by Sweden’s Idre, Slovenia’s Rogla, Kazakhstan’s Almaty and Aspen of the United States. After the ski and snowboard cross competitions in Idre last month, Rogla hosted the parallel and giant slalom snowboard competitions on March 1-2. Almaty is holding moguls and aerials events on March 8-11 and Aspen is set to organize slopestyle, halfpipe and big air events of both Snowboard and FreeSki on March 10-16. Russian athletes are competing at the 2021 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships under the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the official name of the team is the Russian Ski Federation (RSF). In line with sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against Russian sports, national athletes from Russia were banned from participating in the Olympic Games and World Championships under the national flag and to the tune of the Russian anthem until December 16, 2022. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne upheld on December 17 WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports. According to the CAS decision as of December 17, 2020, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for the two-year period. The national anthem of Russia was also ruled out to be played at international sport tournaments in the course of the next two years, including at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this year. The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for the period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022. Read more