Norway the golden team in Cortina

Norway earned its first-ever medal in a FIS Alpine World Ski Championship mixed team event, striking gold in an action-packed race.

Norway edged Sweden in the Big Final in a nail biter that saw a rare re-run as Norwegian Sebastian Foss Solevaag and Swede Kristoffer Jakobsen came close to colliding in their round, causing the jury to issue the order for the re-run. Foss Solevaag came through big in the re-run, earning the rare victory on the blue course, which proved to be the difference between gold and silver.

The silver medal gives Sweden more medals in the mixed team event than any other nation in the history of the event, only missing the podium twice since 2005. Today was a bit of redemption for the Swedes as one of the two times they missed the podium was in 2019 on home snow in Are (SWE).

The surprise of these World Championships, Germany, continued its medal roll, earning the bronze medal by a razor thin margin against Switzerland. Switzerland entered today’s race as the defending World Champion, but the switch from the mixed team event being staged as a giant slalom meant there weren’t many familiar faces on the Swiss squad to defend that title. In fact, all three medalists from 2019, Switzerland, Austria and Italy, failed to make the podium again this year.

For Norway, today’s victory was huge for the team morale. The Norwegians have had massive bad luck with injuries this season, especially on the men’s side. Today’s team win gave the Attacking Vikings reason to smile again.

Cortina offered up another day of beautiful sunny skies, although the warmer temperatures from the last few days left the snow a little slower than earlier in the World Championships. Nevertheless, the 15 entered teams put on a solid show with very few DNFs and many down-to-the-wire finishes.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the individual events with the women’s giant slalom on tap. The first run is scheduled for 10:00 am.