Combined, Men

After the postponement of the men’s downhill and the women’s giant slalom, the men’s Alpine Combined event became the first Alpine skiing event at PyeongChang. As in the days before, wind was still a factor and the start of the downhill phase was lowered for safety reasons, cutting the race short by about 20 seconds. The course was also changed slightly to not so windy parts and avoiding big jumps. The remaining course was more like a Super G, with gusty winds.

The reigning World Champion was Luca Aerni, who won the title at St. Moritz in 2017. He dethroned Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who finished second by 1/100th of a second, after winning gold in 2015. The Frenchman Alexis Pinturault won the Combined Crystal Globe in 2016 and 2017 and won five out of the last nine World Cup Combined events, but had never won a medal in this event at the World Championships or Olympics. In the years 2014 and 2015 no Crystal Globe was awarded, but the scoring was topped by Ted Ligety/Pinturault (shared in 2014) and Carlo Janka. The only two Alpine Combined events held during this World Cup season were won by Pinturault in Bormio and by Victor Muffat-Jeandet in Wengen, but the Crystal Globe was won by Italian Peter Fill, who was able to finish second (Bormio) and third (Wengen). The gold medalist from Sochi Sandro Viletta was not able to participate in PyeongChang, as he tore his right ACL in December 2016 and never fully recovered. The silver medalist from four years ago Ivica Kostelić retired in January 2017, with only the bronze medalist Christof Innerhofer returning to the Olympics. Still present at this Games was the gold medalist from 2006, Ted Ligety.

The downhill phase started as scheduled at 1130 with sunshine and blue skies, but with swirling winds and the temperature at -11° C. Thomas Dreßen, wearing bib #1, set the fastest time and the best slalom racer, Hirscher, with bib #2, also raced well. Both took the advantage of an early start as the gusts whipped up during a 15-minute delay after the crash of bib #3 Pavel Trikhichev. Also in a good position was Pinturault, finishing 10th and 0.28 seconds ahead of Hirscher.

To give more balance the slalom part was shortened by 10 gates. Muffat-Jeandet set the early pace and took the lead. Ligety, Marco Schwarz, and Thomas Mermillod-Blondin all finished right behind the Frenchman. It was Hirscher who took over the lead from Muffat-Jeandet and also bettered his slalom race time by 1/100th of a second. Two racers later, Pinturault settled in second place and the podium stood. At the end of the result list Albin Tahiri from Kosovo finished in 37th and last position, but made history by becoming the first ever Winter Olympic competitor for his country.

After six Overall World Cup titles and six gold medals at World Championships, Hirscher won his first Olympic gold at his third Games. For Austria it was the first men’s Combined gold medal since Mario Reiter won gold in Nagano 20 years ago and, for France, it was the first men’s Combined medals after 70 years, when Henri Oreiller and James Couttet won gold and bronze at St. Moritz in 1948. Hirscher raced Atomic, Pinturault won silver with Head skis, and Muffat-Jeandet used Salomon.