Super G, Men

With Hermann Maier, World Cup champion in 1999-2000-2001, out because of a terrible motorcycle accident in August 2001, the favorite’s role fell to another Austrian, Stephan Eberharter, who had won three of the four super-G World Cup races prior to Salt Lake City. Norway’s Kjetil André Aamodt went off in third position and posted the fastest time, Eberharter was the seventh starter and, although he led Aamodt at several of the early checkpoints, he finished 1/10th back of Aamodt, who won the gold medal. Aamodt had already won gold in the combined in Salt Lake City, and the super-G was his third Olympic gold and seventh Olympic medal. In 2006 he would add another gold for his eighth medal by defending the super-G title.