Swiss bliss on the slopes

Suter's downhilll win underlines her country's dominance of Alpine skiing

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

The 27-year-old clocked 1 min 31.87 sec down the 2.7-km-long "Rock" course in Yanqing, finishing 0.16 sec 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, 0.57 sec 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 has 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 2.16 sec 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 (Sweden) in 2019 she has found the right way: great speed and aggressivity, and great feelings," Gut-Behrami added. "And she is getting medals at big events."

After failing to finish in her favored 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.

AFP