Giant Slalom, Men

As scheduled the giant slalom was the fourth men’s Alpine skiing event at this Games. The heavy favorite was Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who led the seasonal giant slalom World Cup, having won four out of six races this winter in Beaver Creek, Alta Badia, Adelboden and also the last event held before the Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He had also won the last three giant slalom World Cup Globes and was the 2017 World Champion.

Other medal contenders were Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway, who was in second place in the seasonal World Cup, and Alexis Pinturault from France, third in the giant slalom World Cup, winner of the race in Val d’Isère on home soil and the bronze medalist from Sochi. Again racing in PyeongChang, and competing in his fourth Olympics, was the gold medalist from Sochi, Ted Ligety. He was also the last to beat Hirscher for the giant slalom Crystal Globe in the 2013/14 season and had also won the 2015 World Championships, but he had struggled with injuries in the last two seasons. Not competing was the Sochi silver medalist, Steve Missillier, who was out for the season with back pain.

In the first run Pinturault, bib #1, made use of the perfect conditions and set the pace with 1:08.90. Only Hirscher, bib #5, was able to surpass the Frenchman with a big margin of 0.63 seconds. After the first run, a similar margin separated the next eight racers as Žan Kranjec in ninth position, was 0.62 seconds behind Pinturault, followed by Kristoffersen in 10th.

In the second run Ryan Cochran-Siegle, placed 21st after the first run, clocked the third best time to finish 11th overall and, with the best time of the second run, Kristoffersen won silver, just 4/100ths of a second ahead of Pinturault. Hirscher was untouchable, with the second-best time in the second run to become the first and only double Olympic champion in Alpine skiing at these Games. He dominated the event as Kristoffersen was 1.27 seconds in arrears. The three favorites shared the medals and were in the same order as in the seasonal giant slalom World Cup. Hirscher raced Atomic, Kristoffersen used Rossignol, and Pinturault won bronze with Head skis.