Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt finally lived up to expectations by holding his nerve in snow and fog to win gold in the men’s Olympic giant slalom on Sunday.
Odermatt put the disappointment of two underwhelming outings in speed events behind him to clock a combined total of 2min 09.35sec over the two legs down the “Ice River” course in Yanqing.
Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec claimed silver thanks to the fastest second leg, 0.19sec off the pace, while reigning world champion Mathieu Faivre of France took bronze, 1.34sec behind the winner.
Odermatt had come into the Beijing Games as current World Cup overall leader and one of the big favourites.
But he has disappointed on the artificial snow in China, having finished seventh in the downhill and skiing out of the super-G, a race in which he was expected to challenge for the Olympic title.
The giant slalom was a different ballgame, however, and only eight racers got within two seconds of Odermatt, many struggling with the heavy snow and increasingly foggy conditions that drastically reduced visibility.
The 24-year-old Swiss racer, who has won four of five World Cup giant slalom races this season, had been fastest down the first leg, just four-hundredths of a second ahead of Stefan Brennsteiner.
But the Austrian was one of three big names in the top eight, alongside Austrian outsider Manuel Feller and Italy’s world silver medallist Luca de Aliprandini, to ski out.
Norway’s silver medallist from the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Henrik Kristoffersen, went into the second run in fourth, but he slid wide on one turn as he pushed, losing more than a second in the process to eventually finish eighth.
American River Radamus came in fourth, just ahead of French duo Thibaut Favrot and two-time Olympic bronze medallist Alexis Pinturault, who tied for fifth.
AFP
