After the last heavy defeats in the supreme discipline, the Germans went into races in China as blatant outsiders. And it wasn’t enough for the big surprise this time either.
Austria’s Matthias Mayer scored a historic hat-trick at the Olympics. The 31-year-old Carinthian drove to victory in the Super-G in Beijing and was the first ski racer to win gold in three consecutive games. Mayer won the downhill in 2014 and the Super-G in 2018. “It was a great ride,” praised the winner on ORF.
Mayer gets his third gold
In the closest Super-G decision in Olympic history, Mayer won just 0.04 seconds ahead of surprise second-placed Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA). Bronze went to the Norwegian favorite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (+0.42 seconds). Downhill Olympic champion Beat Feuz (Switzerland) dropped out after 17 seconds. World Champion Vincent Kriechmayr (Austria) was fifth.
The German starters showed a solid performance, but had nothing to do with the medal award. The best of the quartet was Vice World Champion Romed Baumann in seventh place (+1.16), followed by Andreas Sander (8th/+1.27) and Simon Jocher (13th/1.58). “Everything has to be right for a medal, not everything was right today,” said Baumann on ARD.
The decision in Yanqing was the closest in a Super-G: In 1994, Markus Wasmeier won 0.08 seconds ahead of Tommy Moe (USA). Mayer is the fourth Austrian after Toni Sailer (alpine skiing), Thomas Morgenstern (ski jumping) and Felix Gottwald (Nordic combined) with three Olympic gold medals.