Switzerland’s Beat Feuz won a thrilling men’s downhill at the Winter Olympics, with 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey taking silver to become the oldest Olympic medallist in alpine skiing.
Feuz produced a superb run to clock one minute 42.69 seconds and edge out four-time Olympian Clarey by 0.1secs.
“I knew I only had one chance left in my career to get a medal in the Olympics,” said Clarey.
“When you are a medallist, whether you are 20 or 41 it doesn’t matter.”
The event was originally scheduled for Sunday but high winds prompted its postponement until Monday, when conditions were perfect.
Feuz, 34, was a two-time medallist at Pyeongchang 2018 but this was his first Olympic gold.
“I can’t think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck,” he said.
Elsewhere, Mikaela Shiffrin’s hopes of retaining her Olympic giant slalom title ended early when she slipped and missed a gate on the first run.
“It’s a huge disappointment,” said the American, after slipping on a course known as ‘The Ice River’.
“The day was finished basically before it even started.”
With Shiffrin out of contention, Sweden’s Sara Hector took gold with Italy’s Federica Brignone claiming silver and Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami bronze.
Parrot takes gold three years after cancer diagnosis
Earlier on day three in Beijing, Canada’s Max Parrot won snowboard slopestyle gold with the “best run of his life” – three years after being diagnosed with cancer.
Parrot was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in late 2018, but in July 2019 announced he was cancer-free after 12 rounds of chemotherapy.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva – competing in the team event – became the first female figure skater to land a quadruple jump at an Olympics as she underlined her status as hot favourite for the individual women’s event.
Her historic jump helped the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) to its second gold medal of the Games.
Source: bbc
