2022 Winter Olympic Games alpine overview

An intense period of Olympic skiing has come to an end. For some their Olympic journey ended with tears of joy for the medalists, disappointment for some and content for others who were able to compete. With a total of 33 medals up for grabs, Switzerland came top of the medal table with a total of 9 Olympics medals (5 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze). They were followed by skiing rivals Austria, who placed 2nd, who claimed a total of 7 medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze) and France, in 3rd, with 3 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze). Here is an overview of the disciplines and the medalists.

Men’s downhill:
Two-time Olympic medalist, Beat Feuz (SUI) had yet to claim gold at the Olympics, however, after completing a clinical run, the Swiss skier managed to finish 0.10 seconds ahead of the French racer, Johan Clarey, to claim gold. Placing second, Clarey became the oldest Olympic medalist in alpine skiing at the age of 41 years and 29 days. Matthias Mayer claimed yet another Olympic medal placing 3rd claiming his third Olympic medal. Men’s World Cup downhill leader, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR), felt the pressure to perform well but unfortunately didn’t have it in him to claim a podium finish.

Women’s GS:
Winning her first Olympic medal, Sara Hector (SWE) raced her heart out to claim gold ahead of Federica Brignone (ITA) and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI). The Swede has been dominating the women’s GS World Cup circuit this season after finishing on five out of the six podiums, which included three victories. After claiming bronze in 2018 in the women’s GS, Brignone was out to finish better in these games despite not yet having a podium finishing in the World Cup GS season. She finished with a total time difference of 0.28 seconds behind Hector to win silver. Swiss skier, Lara Gut-Behrami, had not been putting in consistent performances throughout the World Cup season so was uneasy heading into the GS race. Nonetheless, she gave it her all to claim her first Olympic GS podium result.

Men’s Super G:
2018 Olympic Super G Champion, Matthias Mayer (AUT) retains his title and rewrote history. Having won the downhill at Sochi 2014, the Super G at PyeongChang 2018, and the Super G at Beijing 2022, Mayer became the first male skier to win three Olympic gold medals in successive Games. Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA) put in a stellar run and finished only 0.04 seconds behind Mayer to claim his first-ever Olympic medal and his first podium finish of the season. Norwegian, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, finished in 3rd to claim his very first Olympic medal. Heading into the race, Kilde was one of the favourites to win but was still ecstatic with his bronze medal.

Women’s slalom:
Having already accumulated enough points to have won the women’s slalom World Cup, Petra Vlhova (SVK) was ready to make her mark on the Olympic slalom event. With Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Vlhova’s rival, skiing out in her first run, the slope was open for Vlhova to claim her first Olympic medal and become Olympic champion. Finishing 7th in her first run, Katharina Liensberger (AUT) fought back to claim 2nd place, whilst Swiss skier, Wendy Holdener placed 3rd.

Men’s alpine combined:
Probably one of the most inspiring stories this season is the one of Johannes Strolz (AUT), who after being dropped from the national team, fought back to win gold. 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. Another surprise was when Kilde decided to have a shot at the slalom. After placing first in the downhill race, Kilde overachieved in the slalom to finish 2nd behind Strolz. James Crawford (CAN) was another sensation at these Olympics after having placed 4th in the downhill and 6th in the Super G. After finishing 0.02 seconds behind Kilde in the downhill, Crawford secured his first podium finish with a strong slalom run.

Women’s Super G:
The Italian women’s team has been dominating the Super G World Cup circuit this season claiming the majority of victories, however, their best skier finished 7th. Lara Gut-Behrami snatched the gold medal to become Switzerland’s first Olympic Super G gold medalist. A surprise for Mirjam Puchner (AUT) as she claimed the silver medal in the Olympic debut. The Austrian normally excels in the downhill rather than the Super G so was thrilled with the result. Michelle Gisin (SUI) finished 3rd to claim her first Olympic Super G medal.

Men’s GS:
Dominating the GS World Cup this season, all eyes were on Marco Odermatt, the Swiss rocket. Leading after the first run by 0.49 seconds and then finishing his second-run 0.19 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Odermatt proved that he is currently the best in the world. Slovenian, Zan Kranjec finished 2nd to claim his first Olympic medal and to become the second Slovenian to claim a silver medal in the Olympic GS. Current GS World Champion, Mathieu Faivre (FRA), had been struggling to reach his top potential throughout the World Cup season so far. Nonetheless, the Frenchman put in two strong runs to claim the bronze medal.

Women’s downhill:
Returning from a recent knee injury, it was unsure how the reigning Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia (ITA) would perform. As could be expected the Italian left everything on the slope in hopes of retaining her title. At first, there was an Italian lockout of the podium, but Swiss skier Corinne Suter (SUI) put an end to that dream after finishing 0.16 seconds ahead of Goggia. In her Olympic debut, Nadia Delago (ITA) completed a solid run to claim her first podium finish and her first Olympic bronze medal.

Men’s slalom:
Being one of the most thrilling and unpredictable disciplines this season, anything could have happened in the men’s slalom. So far in the slalom World Cup season, there have been fourteen different podium finishes out of a possible eighteen, so the fight for gold was on. Winner of the opening slalom of the season, Clement Noel, put in a strong charge in his second run to claim the gold. Strolz who had clocked in the fastest time in the first run just didn’t have the legs in the second run to beat Noel but claimed another medal by finishing second. Slalom World Champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (NOR) put in two strong runs to finish in third, claiming his second Olympic medal.

Women’s alpine combined:
Finishing the downhill race in 12th, Michelle Gisin (SUI) managed to retain her Olympic title after out-performing the rest of the field in the slalom. Gisin finished her slalom run over 1-second faster than her Swiss compatriot, Wendy Holdener. Gisin becomes the third women’s alpine skier to win back-to-back gold medals in the Olympic alpine combined. Holdener, who had placed 3rd in the PyeongChang 2018, managed to beat her alpine combined best result in claiming 2nd. Claiming her second medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Federica Brignone (ITA) pushed hard in the slalom run and made up five places to claim the bronze medal.

Mixed team parallel:
In the last event of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, nations formed mixed teams to go head-to-head in the mixed team parallel event. Reigning Olympic champions, Switzerland, were knocked out by Germany in the quarterfinals, who then went on to compete in the big final against Austria. The decision of who’d become Olympic champions came down to a tie break where Austria came out victorious. In the small final, Norway confronted the USA, which also went to a tie break, which the Norwegians won by a 0.42-second difference.

Athletes who compete in the men’s and women’s Audi FIS Ski World Cup have now headed back to Europe to continue with the World Cup tour. The women’s tour heads to Crans-Montana (SUI) where two downhill races will take place on the 26th and 27th of February. The men’s tour will be heading to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER) where two slalom races will also be taking place on the same dates.