YANQING, China (Reuters) – Giant slalom gold medallist Marco Odermatt of Switzerland credited a risky decision to change his skis, despite leading after his first run in Sunday’s race, for his country’s third Alpine skiing gold medal of the Winter Olympics.
Odermatt was leading after the first run in challenging conditions on the course dubbed “The Ice River”, with heavy snow cutting visibility to a minimum and making life tough for the entire field.
He finished his second run with a combined time of 2:09:35, putting him 0.19 seconds ahead of runner-up Zan Kranjec of Slovenia, with France’s Mathieu Faivre taking bronze.
“We changed the ski and binding for the second run because I didn’t feel so good on the feet after the first run,” Odermatt said. “It took some courage to do it after leading the Olympic race but it was definitely the right decision.
“Those 19 hundredths (of a second) are not much. It was definitely because I changed the ski.”
The Swiss has been the dominant force in giant slalom on the World Cup this season, winning four of the five races on the circuit and finishing runner-up in the fifth. He also leads the overall World Cup standings.
Odermatt pushed hard to stay ahead of Kranjec, who was fastest in the second run. The Swiss finished 59 hundredths of a second slower than Kranjec’s second effort but was still fast enough to win the gold medal.
“It’s always a bit risky in ski racing if you want to fight for the medals. So much can happen,” Odermatt said. “It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs.
“I really risked everything in the second run because I wanted not just the medal, I wanted the gold medal. It’s difficult because you can lose everything but today it paid off.”
Odermatt’s effort earned Switzerland their third Alpine skiing gold of the Games, after Beat Feuz took victory in the men’s downhill and Lara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G.
“It’s hard to say what’s the secret,” Odermatt added. “It was a very, very hard race. Nobody had a really good feeling. It was just about fighting and pushing till the very last gate and it was again the same in the second round.
“You had to ski clean more or less and push but it was really hard with the visibility, with the snowfall.
“I won the medal today but there’s so much between (you) and a medal, there are so many shadows behind the medal, on the other side.”
(Reporting by Simon Jennings; editing by Clare Fallon)
