Suter confirms Swiss dominance with downhill gold

Alpine skier clocks 1min 31.87sec to finish 0.16sec ahead of defending champion Goggia at Beijing Games

BEIJING:

Corinne Suter confirmed Switzerland's alpine skiing dominance at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday when she streaked to victory in the women's downhill for the country's fourth gold and fifth of the Games.

The 27-year-old clocked 1min 31.87sec down the 2.7km-long "Rock" course in Yanqing, finishing 0.16sec ahead of defending champion Sofia Goggia of Italy, whose silver capped a remarkable return to form after she injured her knee in a crash last month.

A second Italian, Nadia Delago, claimed bronze, 0.57sec adrift of Suter.

"I'm super happy with my run," said Suter. "In the finish I wasn't sure if it was good or not because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side.

"It's the biggest dream of my life."

Suter, who became only the second skier since now-retired American Lindsey Vonn to win Olympic gold after the world title, added: "At the moment we have a very good team spirit.

"In our group everyone's super fast and we can push each other to our limits."

After her surprise silver medal, Goggia said: "I gave everything I could.

"From zero to 10, my physical condition is about a five. I can barely bend my knee.

"This has been really tough on me mentally. I took painkillers before the race."

Suter's win followed Swiss gold-medal showings by Lara Gut-Behrami in the women's super-G, while Beat Feuz won the men's downhill at the start of the Games and Marco Odermatt took the men's giant slalom.

It is the first time Switzerland have won the two downhill events at the same Olympics since Bernhard Russi and Marie-Theres Nadig achieved the feat at the 1972 Sapporo Games.

Gut-Behrami, who has also won giant slalom bronze in these Games, had complained of fatigue coming into the downhill and it showed as she finished 2.16sec off the pace.

"That's sport," said Gut-Behrami, adding that she was "happy" with her Olympics. "It doesn't take much to be slow. I was a little bit too hard on my skis.

"I tried to improve my speed, but it didn't happen."

She said Suter "has always been consistent and has worked so hard”.

"Since the world championships in Are in 2019 she has found the right way: great speed and aggressivity, and great feelings. And she is getting medals at big events."

After failing to finish in her favoured events of the slalom and giant slalom, American Mikaela Shiffrin enjoyed a rare outing in the ultimate speed event, with one eye on Thursday's alpine combined, which incorporates a downhill followed by a slalom.

Shiffrin attacked but ultimately finished well off the pace as the out-and-out downhillers came out top.

"I feel like I have a lot to learn in downhill and I'm trying to take a crash course in the last few days," Shiffrin admitted.

"It's an amazing track to ski and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to race it today and get another run under my belt for the coming days."

Czech cross-code star Ester Ledecka had failed in her bid to claim a back-to-back Olympic super-G title just days after she retained her snowboard parallel giant slalom title, eventually finishing fifth.

And her downhill was quickly over as she skied wide on one turn, a mistake that cost her two seconds.

"That's skiing, one little mistake and it's like this," said Ledecka.

"It doesn't feel very nice, but that's sport, that's part of the game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

Germany's Kira Weidle had impressed in the two training runs, but the world silver medallist was disappointed after finishing 0.14sec off the podium in fourth