By Martyn Herman
BORMIO, Italy, Feb 17 (Reuters) – The longest and loudest apres-ski parties in Bormio during the Olympic men’s Alpine skiing programme were to be found at the Swiss House and for good reason during a record-breaking 10 days for the nation’s dominant team.
Switzerland scooped four of the five gold medals on offer and bagged eight medals in all, three more than their previous best, as Franjo von Allmen announced himself as the nation’s latest superstar.
But for Norway-born Brazilian Lucas Pinheiro Braathen’s historic giant slalom victory it would have been a clean sweep.
“Most likely, we’re living in a golden era in Switzerland, with so many athletes who can perform,” said Loic Meillard, who crowned it with the slalom title on Monday. “We have to see that we are very lucky. And we have to make the best out of this time because there will be a day when it will change.”
Talisman Marco Odermatt had been expected to lead Switzerland’s assault on the fabled Stelvio slope that provided a fitting stage for the action, but the 28-year-old four-time World Cup overall champion was left in the shade by young gun Von Allmen, albeit still returning home with three medals.
Odermatt badly wanted the Olympic downhill title but could not match the pace of Von Allmen down the brutal 3.2-km track, finishing off the podium in fourth place.
The 24-year-old Von Allmen became the fifth Swiss man to win the Olympic downhill title, edging out Italian Giovanni Franzoni, while veteran Dominik Paris grabbed an emotional bronze in his final Games.
Von Allmen was at it again two days later although he needed a considerable amount of help from Tanguy Nef whose sparkling slalom run clinched more Swiss gold in the new-format team combined, with Odermatt and partner Meillard sharing silver with Austrians Vincent Kriechmayr and Manuel Feller.
Now on an unstoppable roll, Von Allmen then won the super-G to become the first male Alpine skier to win three gold medals at a single Olympics since Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.
Odermatt had one last chance to take gold but could not successfully defend the giant slalom title he won in Beijing as he was edged out by the flamboyant Pinheiro Braathen who danced through the gates to land gold for Brazil — south America’s first ever Winter Olympics medal.
“If it hadn’t been for all the drastic choices that I’ve made, the rather unconventional path I’ve taken, I wouldn’t be sat here today,” said the 25-year-old occasional cat-walk model, who switched allegiance from Norway after a fall-out with the federation in 2023. “Today was very much ‘joga bonito’.”
Nothing encapsulated the razor-thin divide between Olympic joy and heartache more than the slalom race.
Norway’s top-ranked Atle Lie McGrath, racing in honour of his grandfather who died on the day of the opening ceremony, was the clear leader after a brilliant first run through a blizzard.
In the reverse-order second run he was the last man out of the start gate and required just a solid time to take gold but inexplicably straddled a gate and skied out — gifting the title to Meillard who completed his medal collection.
One of the enduring memories of a compelling week was the sight of a distraught McGrath stomping off the piste into an adjacent forest to be alone with his thoughts.
“This is sport, what is sport without emotions?” his teammate Henrik Kristoffersen said.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Clare Fallon)
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