Schwarz shines in Alpine Combined

Austrian Marco Schwarz earned his first career gold medal at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championship, topping the rest of the field in Alpine Combined today in Cortina. It was his third career World Championship medal and improved on his bronze medal finish two years ago in Are.

It was essentially a two-horse race after the super-G with big favorite Alexis Pinturault sitting just 0.32 seconds ahead of Schwarz. Schwarz, the current World Cup leader in the slalom, impressed with his fifth-place finish in the super-G putting him in prime position to challenge for the gold.

Pinturault turned in a strong performance in his slalom, which gave him the initial lead, but Schwarz on-upped him when he came down the hill, turning in the fastest slalom time of the day and claiming the victory by a slim 0.04 seconds.

“I really had fun in the super-G,” said Schwarz after the race. “Then I knew I had to attack in the slalom. It doesn’t get much closer than 0.04 seconds against Alexis, so I’m just happy that I got those extra hundredths on my side.”

Schwarz’s gold medal was the third for the Austrian men at these World Championships in as many races.

Third place went to Switzerland’s Loic Meillard, who improved on his sixth-place finish to take the bronze medal 1.12 seconds behind. It was his first career World Championship medal.

Meillard’s third-place finish, put an end to a potential fairy tale day for James Crawford. Wearing bib #32, the Canadian topped the field in the super-G, holding a 0.08 lead over Pinturault going into the slalom. Crawford also turned in a strong slalom run, but was edged for the last medal place by Meillard by 0.21 seconds.

The focus in Cortina now turns to the tech experts, who will have their first challenge in first-ever parallel World Championship race.