Richmond's Loo loses out in first round in Olympic snowboard parallel slalom

Alexa Loo of Richmond comes down Cypress Mountain in the women's parallel giant slalom at the 2010 Winter Olympics losing by a ski tip to Anke Karstens of Germany in the round of 16 Friday.

Don Denton/Black Press

As a chartered accountant numbers don't faze Richmond's Alexa Loo, be they red or black. But .01 in stark yellow on a black scoreboard, well that's different.

A hundredth of a second is the deficit the Richmond snowboarder was eliminated by in the round of 16 in the women's parallel giant slalom on Cypress Mountain at the 2010 Winter Games on Friday.

In her first run against Anke Karstens of Germany, Loo, 37, finished six-tenths of a seconds behind. When they switched courses for the second run, Loo closed the gap but lost by a ski tip.

"I made a couple of little mistakes, I went a hair too round on one of the turns. I tried to let it go and see if I could squeak her through the bottom," said Loo, who comes in at five-foot-six while Karstens is five-nine. "My fingernails aren't long enough."

Nicolien Sauerbreij of the Netherlands defeated Russian Ekaterina Ilyukhina in the final to win gold while Marion Kreiner of Austria took the bronze by beating Selina Joerg of Germany. Karstens went on to finish fifth while Loo's official placing was 12th.

The loss to Karstens by such a small margin, however, was nowhere near as disappointing as the 2006 Olympics when she said falling in qualification "for no good reason was devastating." This time she qualified ninth and got to go up against Karstens, who had the eighth-best qualification time.

"I'm glad I made the finals, at least I had a chance to go for the gold. When you don't qualify, you don't get to play. I got to play today, I lost by a hundredth of a second, that's the way it goes," said Loo.

"I feel a lot better (than 2006). The difference is my family is here, and I was also able to share my journey with so many more people. I didn't have to feel embarrassed if I didn't win. There were tons of people believing in me; I made it to the final and I hope I made them proud, and I hope I've inspired some people to try this out, despite the rain."

Making the top 16 is the best a Canadian has done at the Olympics. "Sorry I didn't make it further, but there it is," she said.

In addition to her parents, Charlie and Toni, and the rest of her family, also along for the ride this time were her fiance Ari Goosen and the students at Homma Elementary in Richmond, who adopted Loo and have been following her career.

The competition was run despite a constant rain on the weather-plauged mountain. That didn't faze Loo. Quite the opposite, she reveled in it.

"I grew up in Vancouver doing sports in the rain my whole life. It was kind of cool coming across the flats where I could feel my board was grabbing, I could feel the rain pelting my face. I just felt awesome because I knew I was going fast," said Loo.

There wasn't any expectation the race would be postponed since on the World Cup circuit they ski in all sorts of conditions. "The show must go on," she said.

Loo recalled one time in Italy during the winter of 2008, when a metre of snow – accompanied by thunder and lightning – dumped on the course during the race. When they got to their car afterward, they not only had to dig it out but also clear a path for the vehicle.

"It was unreal," said Loo, who began skiing and snowboarding on Mount Baker in Washington State more than 20 years ago. "We knew in Vancouver the worst-case scenario was it was going to pour with rain, and here it is. It's still a great course. They did a fantastic job of preparing the course. It was holding up, there were a couple of bumps in it, but not enough [to affect the race]."

After watching the Canadian men compete in the slalom Saturday and participating in Sunday's closing ceremonies, Loo will be looking to book a hall for her May 21 wedding, although she's already got the dress. Then Loo will race in World Cup events in Italy and Spain before finishing the season with the Canadian championships. After that?

"We'll see what happens. I love racing, it's hard to give it up," said Loo, who is ranked 15th in World Cup standings and has never won any of the 128 events she's entered in her career, but she does have three podium finishes, including a second last month in Austria.

Photos by Don Denton/Black Press