BOKWANG, Korea, Republic Of -- After two decades of Olympic participation, Canadian snowboarder Jasey-Jay Anderson has a certain expectation for course conditions at a Winter Games.
He felt the track at Saturday's men's parallel giant slalom competition wasn't close to the appropriate standard. Anderson, who missed the cut after finishing 24th in qualification, said the slope wasn't raked properly for the morning session.
"It's the preparation," Anderson said. "The organizing committee is atrocious for this."
Course workers lined the sides of the course during competition. Some used their skis to quickly groom the snow -- a process called slipping -- while others rake the course near the gates before the competitors come down.
Anderson was upset after his first run, voiced his concerns when he returned to the start gate and made adjustments to his board. He noticed more slippers on course for the second session but still felt the raking was insufficient.
The veteran from Mont-Tremblant, Que., finished with a two-run time of one minute 26.76 seconds.
"They've got plenty of people," Anderson said. "If you look up the hill, everyone has got a rake by each gate. They just don't know how to use them. Some even have two people with rakes. They're not doing anything. They're just watching the race. Check it out, it's abysmal, man. It's so deceiving."
Darren Gardner of Burlington, Ont., also missed the cut for the 16-man elimination rounds in the afternoon. He was 28th in 1:26.94.
Switzerland's Nevin Galmarini won gold, Sangho Lee of South Korea took silver and Slovenia's Zan Kosir won bronze. Anderson, who won a World Cup a month ago, felt the raking issue had a significant effect on his time.
"It killed it. It absolutely killed it," he said. "You expect good conditions and you get nothing. It was like a bad training day. So if there's nobody slipping on a training day, it looks like that."
Austria's Sebastian Kislinger said a number of athletes complained about the course after the morning session, but he felt things improved in the afternoon.
"It was really tricky to ride in the first two runs ... but right now, they've got it in real good shape," said Kislinger, who finished 11th.
Anderson said competitors who used a straighter line and had more forgiving snowboard setups posted better times. He felt better about his second time, but it wasn't enough.
The sport's governing body, FIS (International Ski Federation), was asked for comment and a FIS media official later emailed a statement from FIS Snowboard race director Uwe Beier.
"While we were unable to groom the course yesterday due to high daytime temperatures and the sensitivity of the slope, today we had an excellent co-operation with (organizing committee) POCOG and the course workers on site to prepare the course before competition and maintain it at a high and consistent level for all competitors throughout the day."
Anderson felt more raking was required along the flatter sections of the course. He felt he couldn't push hard at times, adding he had to skip out on one turn because it wasn't raked.
"I can't do anything, I can't work with this," Anderson said. "Everything is (normally) set up for good World Cup conditions. This is Nor-Am level. Actually even Nor-Am (a lower level) is better than this. It's pretty bad."
Temperatures hovered near the freezing mark Saturday morning and the sun was out for most of the day.
"The hill prep is perfect, you just need people working on it," Anderson said. "We only have one edge and we really cut up the hill. So every time there is a rider you have to rake and slip. But they're not doing either."
The 42-year-old Anderson, who won Olympic gold in 2010, is the only Canadian to compete in six different Winter Olympics.
He talked with reporters for 20 minutes after the qualification and didn't mince words.
"I was expecting to have a good platform to be able to push off of and it was there for the first five gates and then it just went to hell," he said. "Nothing. So unfortunately I kept chattering on each toe side because it was bumpy. They all have rakes at each gate but they're not using them.
"They're just leaning up against them. They don't know how. They're very ill-prepared for this event. It's unfortunate. It's really, really unfortunate."
Anderson said he couldn't protest with race officials and simply had to accept the results.
"It's just how it is," he said. "You never know at the Olympics. You never know, it's part of the deal."
Anderson plans to continue competing and didn't rule out a potential return for a seventh Olympics at the 2022 Games in Beijing.
