Arsen Nersisyan was 22 at the time of the Vancouver Olympics and was making his Olympic debut. On 23 February, he failed to finish the first run of the giant slalom. On 27 February, he participated in the slalom, but after skiing a first run time of 1 minute and 5 seconds, he was disqualified from the competition for "improper gate movement". He said he was disqualified "because coming out of the starting gate, my skies parted." Ani-Matilda Serebrakian was 21 years old at the time of these Games, and was also making her first Olympics appearance. On 24 February, in challenging weather conditions, she did not finish the first leg of the giant slalom. Two days later, she was disqualified from the Women's slalom, reportedly for using skis that fell outside of the allowed size tolerances.