Alpine skiing (sometimes referred to as downhill skiing) is one of the signature competitions at the Winter Olympics. Competitors regularly reach speeds of up to 152km/h (95mph), all while navigating technically demanding pistes and some very stiff competition.
Alpine skiing events are divided into four disciplines. Downhill and Super-G, known as speed events, have a focus on exactly that - speed. Giant Slalom and Slalom meanwhile are known as technical events. Across these four disciplines, there are 11 events in the Alpine competition at the Games, with 33 medals up for grabs.
The Alpine Skiing events of this year’s Games, hosted by China, are held at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center downhill course. The Center, nicknamed “The Rock,” is an entirely manmade piste. It has never hosted any international events, having been built specifically for the 2022 Winter Games.
The first day of Medal events (Monday 7th) saw the first two medals come in for the SwissSki team. Beat Feuz took Gold in Men's Downhill, beating French Johan Clarey and Austrian Matthias Mayer, said to be the overall male favourite at the start of the competition.
Lara Gut-Behrami made a strong start and used the Giant Slalom event as an opportunity to add to her already overflowing trophy cabinet. She finished third, less than a second seperating her and Swedish Sara Hector(gold) and Italian Federica Brignone(silver).
Two Did Not Finishes from Swiss contenders Marco Odermatt and Beat Feuz in the Men's Super G on the second day of races, showing the calibre of ability required to race the course, let alone win.
On February 9th we saw Wendy Holdener take bronze in the Women's Slalom. On the 11th of February there was two Swiss podium finishes in the Women's Super-G. Lara Gut-Behrami took first place, her second medal of the competition. Michelle Gisin achieved bronze, Austrian Mirjam Puchner was sandwiched between the two in second place. The first week was rounded off on another high, with Marco Odermatt taking Gold in the Men's Giant Slalom.
|That's three Gold medals and three Bronze in seven days, with the second week still on the horizon.
In the Women's Downhill Switzerland crowned another champion, this time Corinne Suter taking Gold. Thursday 17th of February saw an important day in the history books, as Michelle Gisin took Gold and Wendy Holdener took Silver in the Women's Alpine Combined Slalom. During the mixed team event, a knock-out race which closes the Alpine Skiing events, Switzerland were knocked out by Germany in a very close competition. At the end of the competition Switzerland had achieved four Gold, one Silver and three Bronze medals in the Alpine Ski events.
A big congratulations to the entire Swiss team who came 8th overall, with eight Golds, two Silvers and 5 Bronze medals. A grand total of 13 medals were won by athletes dressed in X-Bionic. In particular a shout out to Ryan Regez and Alex Fiva, who dominated the SkiCross podium - taking gold(Regez) and silver(Fiva). Not forgetting the Bob Sled Team, led by Francesco Friedrich. The team successfully defended their Olympic title in not one but two disciplines! After claiming first place in the two-man bob, he and his team went on to win the four-man bob race as well!
A phenominal turn out by the SwissSki team. This generation of Swiss champions continuing to bring medals in. A shout out in particular to the women athletes, who displayed a masterclass in how to win at the highest level. Michelle Gisin, Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener are all joint medalists this year, all three athletes taking two medals home.
The 6th Gold in Women's Downhill awarded to Corinne Suter has been pivotal in taking the Swiss team to the top of the table in this discipline, overtaking Austria's 16 medal (but 5 gold medal) lead. The bronze achieved by Michelle Gisin in Super-G took Switzerland 3 places up the medals table for this discipline. Here at X-Bionic we are blown away by dream team Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener, who leveled up their 2018 performance from Gold(Gisin) and Bronze(Holdener) to Gold(Gisin) and Silver(Holdener) in the Combined event. This joint podium finish took Switzerland from seventh up to third place in the Medal table for the discipline.
X-Bionic Brand Ambassador Wendy Holdener carried the Swiss flag at the opening ceremony. This alone is a dream come true for many top athletes around the world. As if this eye watering achievment wasn’t enough, this competition has seen also Wendy Holdener enter the all time top ten Medal leaders in Alpine Ski. Building upon her Gold, Silver and Bronze medals achieved in 2018, taking her total to five medals.
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