Johannes Strolz Wins Alpine Combined And Creates Olympic History

What a story: 34 years after his dad Hubert, Johannes Strolz won Olympic gold in the combination. The Vorarlberg slalom specialist laid the basis for the greatest success of his career with fourth place in the downhill. Silver went to the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (0.59 sec.), who was the leader in the slalom. Canadian James Crawford won the bronze medal (0.68 sec.). Marco Schwarz and Raphael Haaser finished 5th and 7th.

The story of Johannes Strolz (AUT) continues to surprise and inspire. Before the 2021/22 season, the Austrian was kicked off the national team due to poor results. Nonetheless, Strolz wanted to pursue his Olympic dream so had to manage all of his equipment and training by himself. All of Strolz’s hard work and determination paid off when he claimed his first World Cup victory in the Adelboden (SUI) slalom. Today, Strolz claimed his first Olympic medal and made Olympic history. In 1988, Johannes Strolz’s father, Hubert Strolz (AUT) won the gold medal in the alpine combined. The two become the first father-son duo to win Olympic medals in the same discipline.

When the Austrian national anthem sounded for the third time at these Olympic Games in Beijing, a real red-white-red skiing fairy tale had become reality. After many years of deprivation and setbacks and his interim liberation in Adelboden (slalom victory), which also brought him the Olympic ticket, Johannes Strolz was crowned Olympic champion in alpine combined today.

The 29-year-old slalom specialist not only continued a Vorarlberg success story in this discipline (five of the six Austrian combined Olympic champions come from the "Ländle"), but also ensured a world premiere. For the first time in Olympic history, father and son celebrated an Olympic victory in the same alpine discipline.

Strolz said "Because of my father's story, it means a lot to me. When I think about the pictures and my father's gold medal, it's really hard not to cry. I have to thank my family. You always believed in me. And now a dream has come true” 

"It is truly an amazing story," said Andreas Puelacher, head coach of Austria's men's team. "We knew he was a fast skier in the downhill side and in slalom you've seen Adelboden, it was perfect. And after the downhill [today] I can imagine he can make a medal but gold medal it's another story.

"I think he had no pressure today. He was successful in Adelboden ... and for him it was easy skiing here with this snow conditions and that's the reason."

The Alpine combined is the ultimate test of ski racing versatility with a full downhill run in the morning followed by a slalom run in the afternoon. The event made its Olympic debut in 1936 at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games.  

After narrowly missing the podium with a heart-breaking 4th place in the men’s Olympic downhill and skiing into 6th place in the super G earlier this week, Toronto’s Jack Crawford will be leaving these Games with a well-deserved Olympic bronze medal earned in the Alpine Combined. It’s the first time a Canadian earns a medal in the discipline in the Games’ 86 years of history. This is also Crawford’s first podium ever at a major event.

“At the Olympics, a medal is everything,” tells Crawford, a two-time Olympian who is no stranger to the Alpine combined having finished 4th in the discipline at the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, ITA. “I feel relief. I’ve been searching for a podium on the World Cup circuit for so long, and I knew it was around the corner. Today things finally all came together.”

The Alpine combined is the ultimate test of ski racing versatility with a full downhill run in the morning followed by a slalom run in the afternoon. The event made its Olympic debut in 1936 at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games.

Canadian James Crawford, 24-year-old, charged the downhill run with flawless turns from top to bottom of The Rock course, showing why he is one of the tour’s top threats in the discipline. Wearing bib 11, he clocked the 2nd fastest time of the morning, only 0.02 behind Norway’s dominant Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

Trading the long boards for his short skis, Crawford skied an equally impressive and clean slalom run in the afternoon, crossing the finish line with a cumulative time of 2:32.11, holding on to 2nd place and only 0.09 behind Kilde.

“My skiing has been on point this season, and I knew I had a solid run in the downhill. To come into the finish behind Alex and have a lot of strong skiers left to race was hard to wait through after being pushed out of third in the downhill” said Crawford. “To sit in third and have it sink in was an amazing feeling”.

Today marks only the fourth Olympic medal won by a Canadian in a men’s alpine skiing event, putting Crawford in a elite club alongside Steve Podborski (Bronze - Lake Placid, 1980), Edi Podivinsky (Bronze – Lillehammer, 1994) and Jan Hudec (bronze – Sochi, 2014).