Slalom, Men

The Austrian men’s team still had not medaled in Vancouver prior to the last race, after having won eight medals in Torino – two gold, three silver, and three bronze. But other major “skiing nations” had also not medaled in the men’s races, notably France, Italy, and Germany. The Austrians had won all the major titles since the last Olympics where Benjamin Raich won gold. Mario Matt, who failed to qualify for Vancouver, won the 2007 World Championships in Åre and Manfred Pranger was the 2009 World Champion in Val d’Isère. The 2009-10 season saw Reinfried Herbst, silver medalist from Torino, in the lead of the slalom World Cup after eight of nine races as he had won four times – in Levi, Alta Badia, Schladming, and Kranjska Gora. In second place was the winner at Adelboden, Julien Lizeroux, and in third was the winner in Wengen and runner-up in the 2008-09 slalom World Cup, Ivica Kostelić, while Giuliano Razzoli had won in Zagreb. Lizeroux also finished third in the 2008-09 World Cup and won silver at the 2009 World Championships. But Herbst was not favored in Vancouver due to the topography and the course, with the experts looking to Razzoli, whose Zagreb win was on a similar course. Missing from Vancouver were top slalom specialists Rainer Schönfelder, the bronze medalist from Torino, and Jean-Baptiste Grange, both of whom were out with ACL tears.

Poor weather had caused all sorts of problems with other alpine skiing events, and foggy weather was prevalent throughout this, the last race in Whistler, although it was completed. After the first run Razzoli led in a time of 47.79 seconds with Mitja Valenčić (SLO) 0.43 seconds behind and Raich a further 0.11 seconds back. The early leader in the second run was the Canadian, Julien Cousineau, who at last gave the home crowd something to cheer about in the alpine events. His second run time of 51.07 was to be the second fastest time of the second run and his combined time of 1:40.66 would be good enough for 8th place. Cousineau held his lead until Andre Myhrer surpassed it with a second run of 50.73 (the quickest) and a combined time of 1:39.76. Kostelić, 4th after the first run, then had a good run to take the overall lead with a time of 1:39.48. Raich had a few minor errors, but it was enough to cost him time, finishing in 1:39.81 that was to be just outside the medals. Valenčić had a poor second run, eventually finishing down in 6th place. The last skier to go, Razzoli, held his nerve and, despite having a 0.58 second advantage over Kostelić after the first run, finished just 0.16 seconds ahead in a time of 1:39.32, so winning Italy’s only medal of the alpine skiing events.

Razzoli won the second gold medal at this Games for skiing manufactor Nordica, the same as used by bronze medalist Myhrer, while Kostelić trusted Fischer for silver. Raich and Marcel Hirscher, both just outside the medals, skied on Atomic and sixth placed Valenčić had the best finish in Vancouver for Elan. Finishing in 47th place was Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, known as The Snow Leopard, the first competitor from Ghana to compete in the Winter Games.