Super G, Men1

The third men’s Olympic Alpine skiing decision was originally scheduled for 15 February, but was postponed to the 16th as the men’s downhill was moved to the 15th. The Norwegians Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal were the big favorites, after finishing first (Svindal) and second (Jansrud) in the downhill the day before. Jansrud was also the defending champion from 2014 and led the ongoing Super G World Cup with Svindal in second. The Norwegians also ruled the years before, as the last four Super G Crystal Globes were won by Jansrud (2014/15 and 2016/17), Svindal (2013/14) and Kilde (2015/16). This winter season had seen four out of six World Cup Super Gs won by different skiers as Jansrud won in Lake Louise, Kriechmayr in Beaver Creek, Ferstl in Val Gardena, and Svindal in Kitzbühel.

With a total of seven podium finishes the Austrians would be the primary medal contenders with all four of their racers in this event having top three World Cup finishes prior to PyeongChang. Hannes Reichelt was also the 2015 World Champion, while the reigning 2017 World Champion, Erik Guay, missed the Olympics due to a back injury. The other 2014 medalists, Weibrecht and Hudec, this time for the Czech Republic and no longer competing for Canada, returned to the Games, but both did not finish here. The second bronze medalist from Sochi, Bode Miller, was by now retired.

The starting order for speed events was changed since the last Olympics. The top 10 racers of the World Cup Starting List (WCSL), beginning with the leader, could choose an odd bib number from 1-19, while the next ten racers from the WCSL could choose an even bib number from 2-20. As expected Jansrud set the pace, when coming down with bib #7 and taking the lead 0.51 seconds ahead of Kriechmayr. Coming down with bib #9 Svindal placed second 31/100ths of a second behind his compatriot, but the Norwegian pair was already blown-up when Blaise Giezendanner, bib #10, claimed second place only 2/10ths of a second behind Jansrud. The Frenchman had not been considered a medal contender as he did not race in the Combined nor in the downhill event and his best Super G finish in a World Cup event ever was an eighth place back in February 2016.

The winner was wearing bib #15 and the win went to Austria, when Matthias Mayer was 18/100ths of a second faster than Jansrud. His win was only in danger when Beat Feuz left the start house next, having already won bronze in the downhill. Feuz finished second, only 0.13 seconds slower, but beat Jansrud by 0.05 second, with Griezendanner fourth and Svindal fifth.

After his downhill gold medal in Sochi, Mayer became the second skier to win the Olympic speed double, only one day after Svindal achieved this by winning the downhill. Mayer won the race with an average speed of 99 km/h and was 3.57 metres ahead of Feuz at the finish. As in the downhill, Head again made a clean sweep of the medals, with the top five finishers using their skis.