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The native of Schwyz experiences a Hitchcock final with a happy ending and wins an Olympic medal for the fourth time. Michelle Gisin shows nerves in the second run, Petra Vlhova wins.
The medals
- 1. Petra Vlhova (SVK) 1:44.98 minutes
- 2. Katharina Liensberger (AUT) +0.08 seconds
- 3. Wendy Holdener (SUI) +0.12
From a Swiss point of view, the starting position could not have been more promising, but the decision could not have been much more dramatic either. Finishing 2nd and 5th at halftime, Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener were right in the middle of the battle for the slalom medals. In particular, the woman from Engelberg had, in her own words, “wobbled her way through the course” perfectly, missing Lena Dürr’s best time by a paltry 3 hundredths of a second.
But in the second run, Gisin showed nerves. After a suboptimal run, she dropped back to intermediate 5th place. This in turn gave teammate Holdener the chance to make it onto the podium. At that point, the native of Schwyz was in 3rd place, with only Lena Dürr still at the top. However, the German could not quite keep up with the fastest in the final on the Xiaohaituo. At the finish, she was only 19 hundredths of a second behind the best time, so she fell back to 4th place.
Which meant: Holdener was happy about bronze, after gold (team event), silver (slalom) and bronze (combined) 4 years ago in Pyeongchang she won her 4th Olympic precious metal. “I was never relaxed when driving. At the finish I knew: ‘That wasn’t enough.’ I actually gave up my dream of a medal,” said a visibly touched Holdener after the race.
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Vlhova catapulted from the “Swiss” course to the top
Top favorite Petra Vlhova won. The Slovakian, who had won 5 of 7 World Cup slaloms this season and always made it onto the podium, showed a veritable race to catch up. In the 1st run she didn’t get along with the track at all, lost 72 hundredths to Dürr and only set the 8th time. But their Swiss trainer Mauro Pini, who was allowed to flag out the reprise, found the perfect course for his protégé. With the best running time, she catapulted herself to the top. These are the first Olympic merits in Slovak alpine history. The Austrian Katharina Liensberger (7th after the 1st run) also owed her silver medal to an improvement run.
The other Swiss women
- 7. Camille Rast +0.77
- 10. Aline Danioth +1.66
Camille Rast and Aline Danioth showed extremely ambitious performances. The Valaisan improved with an attacking second run from 9th to 7th place and got an Olympic diploma. With Danioth, the fourth skier from the Swiss quartet also made her contribution to the fantastic team result, in which all Swiss ski athletes were classified in the top 10.
The failed
It would have the games of Mikaela Shiffrin should be. But after the out in the giant slalom, the exceptional talent also failed in the slalom in the first run. Nota bene on the course set by their coach. If her appearance in the giant lasted only 11 seconds, she lost her way in the pole forest after just 4 seconds or at the 4th goal. and missed a pole. As in the first performance, her inner ski slipped away – this time the right one.
After her gold coup in giant slalom wanted Sarah Hector double immediately. With rank 3, the Swede, who had never been better than 5th in the World Cup in slalom, showed a great 1st run. In the decision, Hector was on course for a medal for a long time before merging with the finish line in front of her eyes.
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Here’s how to proceed
In the Alpines, things are going on in quick succession. The men’s combination is already on the program on Thursday from 3:30 a.m. Swiss time. The following day, the speed riders launch their medal fight. On Saturday, a day of rest offers an opportunity to take a breather.