Giant Slalom, Men1

Following earlier disruptions to the alpine skiing program, this event was postponed two days to allow the men’s super combined event to take place. There was no odds-on favorite for the 16th Olympic men’s giant slalom. Six of seven World Cup races were already held this winter and they had seen five different winners: Didier Cuche (Sölden), Carlo Janka (Beaver Creek), Massimiliano Blardone (Alta Badia), Ted Ligety (Kranjska Gora 1), and Marcel Hirscher (Val d’Isère, Kranjska Gora 2). The standings saw Ligety in the lead, followed by Blardone and Hirscher, who was the only racer to win two races in the current season and was also the last winner in Kranjska Gora about three weeks before the Olympics. Bode Miller, silver medalist in the 2002 giant slalom, who had already won a medal of each color in Vancouver, and Aksel Lund Svindal, with gold in the Super G and silver in the downhill, were considered podium candidates. The reigning world champion was Janka, who won gold in Val d’Isère 2009 with Benjamin Raich in second and Ligety in third. Raich (gold) was also the only medalist from Torino still competing as silver medalist Joël Chenal retired in 2009 and bronze medalist Hermann Maier retired just before the 2009-10 season. Only two World Cup giant slaloms had ever been held in Whistler. Ingemar Stenmark won there in 1975 while Hannes Reichelt won on 23 February 2008, but he did not qualify for this event in Vancouver.

Decided over two runs, the main surprise of the first run was the elimination of Miller, who missed a gate. At the end of the first run Janka was the leader with a time of 1:17.27, a mere 0.02 seconds ahead of Romed Baumann, Svindal 0.16 seconds back. So close was the run that less than one second separated Janka from 13th place Felix Neureuther. Starting in reverse order in the second run, Neureuther briefly led, but the best time of the second run came from Kjetil Jansrud in 1:20.15, starting in 11th position. Jansrud then had an anxious wait as the leaders came down. When Svindal came to take his second run, his combined time of 2:38.44 was not good enough to overtake his compatriot. Baumann then made mistakes, and finished only fifth. With a lead of 0.80 seconds over Jansrud, Janka skied well enough to finish with a combined time of 2:37.83, defeating Jansrud by 0.39 seconds to take the gold medal.

From the first six finishers five used Atomic skis, while only fifth placed Baumann was on Salomon. Two notable skiers lower down the order – Dow Travers, finishing 69th, and Muhammad Abbas finishing 79th – were the first ever competitors in a Winter Olympics from the Cayman Islands and Pakistan, respectively.