The weather and slope conditions were difficult, the final run was postponed by a good 75 minutes, the nerves were at their limit.
But Marco Odermatt defied all odds, withstood the pressure of being the favorite at the Olympic Winter Games as the last driver to start the second round of the giant slalom, also countered the fabulous run of the Slovenian Zan Kranjec and won the gold medal in Yanqing.
Achim Dreis
sports editor.
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At the age of 24, the young high-flyer has already achieved the goal of all winter sports dreams: Olympic champion in giant slalom, the basic discipline of alpine skiing.
Silver went to Kranjec, 0.19 seconds behind, the striker with a splendid performance from eighth place to the winner's podium in the second round.
Third place was world champion Mathieu Faivre from France (+1.34) ahead of his two teammates Thibaut Favrot and Alexis Pinturault (+1.50).
As the only German in the final, Julian Rauchfuss finished 20th, just under seven seconds behind.
For hopeful Alexander Schmid, all Olympic dreams were over after just 20 seconds in the first round, and Linus Straßer was also unable to finish the race.