Beijing 2022: Odermatt Wins Men's GS

Saturday, Feb. 13, saw a large amount of snowfall in Yanqing, China, the most the region has seen in one day in eight years, and conveniently on the day of the men’s giant slalom during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. While other events were getting canceled, the men’s race was still on, but the athletes were ready to fight for Olympic gold no matter the weather. Ski racing is unpredictable, and the athletes never know what weather they’ll get on race day.

Marco Odermatt is the first Swiss giant slalom Olympic champion since Carlo Janka in 2010 in Vancouver! The 24-year-old from Nidwalden won in Yanqing in his best discipline with a lead of 19 hundredths ahead of Zan Kranjec from Slovenia.

Holding his nerve after going into the second run just 0.04 seconds ahead of Stefan Brennsteiner of Austria, Odermatt roared in delight on seeing he'd won the Olympic title 0.19 seconds ahead of a still delighted Zan Kranjec. The Slovenian claimed silver after a superb second run enabled him to climb onto the podium from eighth place after the first run to a silver medal in a time of 2:09.54. After a mistake on his second run, Brennsteiner finished well down the field in 27th place.

Odermatt said "It's unbelievable that everything worked out for me. I knew from the start of the games that something was possible here, although we had a bit of a problem with the equipment set-up. I'm proud to be able to follow in Carlo Janka's footsteps. Proud I am too, because it always takes so much to get a gold medal. It takes the trainer, the service man, the ski company, sponsors and of course the family. It's unbelievable how much support an athlete gets in everything."

Claiming his very first Olympic medal, Zan Kranjec (SLO) started his second run in 8th, with little hope of claiming a podium finish. The Slovenian stunned most by giving it his all and placed 2nd. Kranjec’s best GS result this season was 3rd in the Soelden (AUT) World Cup race, however, did not manage to place higher than 10th since. He becomes the second Slovenian to claim a silver medal at in the Olympic GS, after Jure Franko (SLO) back in 1984 in Sarajevo (JUG).

"I don't fully understand it yet. In (Republic of) Korea (Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018) I was fourth so you never know if you will get another chance to fight for a medal," Kranjec said of his first run eighth-place finish. "After the first run I said maybe it's over, I don't have any more chance. But my second run was really good. It's unbelievable. My family, my friends supported me, they believed in me. I know they are celebrating right now. It's in the middle of the night (in Slovenia) but it doesn't matter right now."

Finishing his first run in 3rd place, current GS World Champion, Mathieu Faivre (FRA), held onto his position after the second run and claimed his first Olympic medal. Finishing with a total difference of 1.34 seconds behind the Olympic Champion, Odermatt, Faivre claimed the bronze medal. 

"It's been a tough day, it's been a nervous day, it's been a long day to the second run," said Faivre post race. "I didn't feel really good in the second run actually, it was really tough because of the conditions, because of the surface. But I finished the day with an Olympic medal and I am so happy about it."

Odermatt won the third gold medal for the Swiss Alpines in China after Beat Feuz in the downhill and Lara Gut-Behrami in the Super-G. In addition, Gut-Behrami (giant slalom), Wendy Holdener (slalom) and Michelle Gisin (super-G) won bronze medals last week.

Because of his World Cup results this winter - he won four of five giant slaloms and finished second once - Odermatt was highly favored. But at the Winter Games in Beijing, things didn't go as hoped in his first two races. After finishing 7th in the downhill, the Olympic debutant was eliminated in the Super-G on course for a medal. At the World Championships in Cortina a year ago, he remained without a medal.

Odermatt is the fifth Swiss Olympic champion in giant slalom. The last time Carlo Janka won in this discipline was in Vancouver in 2010. There were also Olympic gold medals in giant slalom for Roger Staub (1960 in Squaw Valley), Heini Hemmi (1976 in Innsbruck) and Max Julen (1984 in Sarajevo).

The leopard-spotted haircut belonging to River Radamus sadly didn't make an appearance on the podium with the American finishing in fourth (2:10.95) with Faivre's compatriot's Thibaut Favrot and Alexis Pinturault finishing in equal fifth place with a time of 2:11.04. Odermatt's teammate Gino Caviezel finished in seventh.

Radamus, who celebrated his 24th birthday just one day before his Olympic debut, sat in sixth, headed into the second run. Excessive snowfall on course tripped up many athletes on their hunt for the finish, but Radamus was able to hang on while carrying enough speed to grab a career-best result.

“My approach this whole season has been process-based; focusing on the things I can control, making sure I take the steps to prepare, and knowing that this is an outdoor sport and things happen on race day, and I can’t control the outcome,” said Radamus.

He’s come close to the podium results he craves before. In Alta Badia and Soelden, Radamus finished sixth, matching his World Cup career-best twice in the 21/22 season. But in the Olympics, he pushed hard enough to do even better. Sporting a zebra-stripe hairdo and

“(Fourth is) tough to swallow right now, but I know in my heart that I did everything to prepare for today. But pressure is a privilege,” Radamus said, “and I tried to relish in it and execute as hard as I could. I didn’t want to back off, I wanted to make sure that I left everything I had on that course, and I did that and then some.”

One of the favourite's for the title, Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen – who won a silver medal in this discipline at PyeongChang 2018 and was the world champion in 2019 – made a big error to put him out of contention but Andorra's Joan Verdu had a cracking two runs to finish ninth, just one place behind Kristoffersen