Norway’s Svindal makes history as oldest Olympic skiing champion

He’s one of Norway’s best-loved and most successful winter athletes and now Aksel Lund Svindal has made history by becoming the oldest skier to win Olympic gold and his country’s first in the speed discipline.

The 35-year-old beat close friend and countryman Kjetil Jansrud into silver with Swiss world champion Beat Feuz in bronze in what is often considered the blue riband event of the Winter Olympics.

Svindal has been one of the dominant skiers of his generation, with multiple world titles and World Cup crowns as well as Olympic super-G gold, downhill silver and giant slalom bronze in Vancouver in 2010, but Olympic downhill gold had always eluded him.

But on a perfect day after a week of high wind and delays at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre, Svindal defied history to edge Sochi super-G champion Jansrud by 0.12 seconds with Feuz 0.18 secs back.

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Svindal is three months older than Austria’s Mario Matt was when he won the slalom at the age of 34 in Sochi. American Bode Miller became skiing’s oldest male medalist when he won bronze at Sochi at the age of 36.

“When you cross the finish line and you see that you’ve had a good race and you’re in the medals or even for the gold, you don’t think too much about the history books,” Svindal told reporters afterwards.

“It’s emotional, and being in the Olympics and competing for gold and being able to get it, for me at least those feelings are much stronger than any history ever written.”

The skiing program is one of the most hotly contested of any Winter Olympics, and PyeongChang 2018 is no different. US favorite Mikaela Shiffrin won silver in the alpine combined, taking her PyeongChang Olympic haul up to two, after claiming gold in the giant slalom.

Switzerland's Michelle Gisin took gold, making an Olympic double for her family after elder sister Dominique won the downhill in Sochi four years ago. Her fellow Swiss Wendy Holdener won bronze.

Marcel Hirscher, winner of two gold medals this games and arguably the greatest skier of his generation, was vying for a third Olympic title. But the Austrian lost control and crashed in the men's slalom, leaving the contest wide open.

Sweden's Andre Myhrer clinched gold in the slalom, becoming the oldest Olympic medalist in this event, aged 35 -- improving on his slalom bronze in Vancouver eight years ago.

Sofia Goggia, 25, became the first Italian to win the women's downhill, cementing a successful season in which she leads the World Cup downhill standings.

US skier superstar Lindsey Vonn was denied gold in her signature event at what will likely be her final Olympics, walking away with bronze. She had hoped to reclaim the title she won in Vancouver eight years ago, having missed the chance at Sochi 2014 due to injuries.

Austria's Marcel Hirscher won his second gold in the giant slalom on Sunday, finishing 1.27 seconds ahead of Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen -- the largest margin of victory in the competition since 1968.

Ester Ledecka, the 22-year-old Czech, is better known as a snowboarding world champion, not a super-G skier. The underdog stunned the world as she finished one-hundredth of a second ahead of defending champion Anna Veith.

A big upset in the women's slalom, where US favorite Mikaela Shiffrin, the defending champion, missed out on a medal a day after winning gold in the giant slalom.

Instead, Frida Hansdotter of Sweden claimed her first ever Olympic medal, becoming the third Swede to win slalom gold.

In the men's super-G, Austria's Matthias Mayer grabbed gold, breaking Norway's 16-year grip on the title. Mayer won downhill gold in Sochi. His father Helmut clinched silver in the inaugural Olympic super-G in Calgary in 1988.

Mikaela Shiffrin was set to be the standout star of the Games after she took her first gold, and the second of her career, in the giant slalom.

Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel won giant slalom silver for her first Olympic medal, finishing 0.39 seconds behind Shiffrin.

Italy's Federica Brignone took bronze, becoming the first Italian woman in 16 years to win an alpine skiing medal.

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway made history in the men's downhill on day six, becoming the oldest Olympic alpine skiing champion at the age of 35.

Svindal's gold was Norway's first ever Olympic downhill gold. His teammate Kjetil Jansrud took silver, finishing just 0.12 seconds adrift.

Swiss world champion Beat Feuz finished 0.18 seconds behind Svindal, taking bronze.

Austrian superstar Marcel Hirscher won his first Olympic gold in the alpine combined on day four. The 28-year-old has competed in three Winter Games but his previous best was a silver in Sochi.

France's Alexis Pinturault won his second Olympic medal, adding silver in the combined to the bronze he won in giant slalom in Sochi four years ago.

Another Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet won bronze -- a pleasant surprise after recording the 29th fastest time in the opening downhill leg.

Russian Pavel Trikhichev suffers a fall after clipping a gate during the alpine combined downhill. He was the sole Olympic Athlete from Russia to compete in the event.

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Managing injury

Svindal began his Olympic career in Turin in 2006 and has since won five world titles, including the downhill in 2007 and 2013, and two World Cup overall crowns alongside 35 World Cup wins.

However, downhill skiing legend Franz Klammer told CNN in the build-up to the Games a speed skier’s greatness was judged on whether they won Olympic gold. The Austrian great said he would have judged himself a “failure” without it.

But the margins are miniscule.

In Vancouver, Svindal missed out on downhill gold by 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and was only 0.02 secs ahead of Miller in bronze.

READ: Mikaela Shiffrin begins gold quest with giant slalom win

Four years later he could only finish fourth in downhill after carrying Norway’s flag at the opening ceremony, and since then has endured a string of serious injuries which have forced him to miss large chunks of the World Cup circuit.

He suffered a season-ending crash at Kitzbuehel in 2016 and missed the following season after knee surgery.

This season he has scored three World Cup wins so far, but still has to limit his training time to manage his knee.

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Aksel Lund Svindal made his Olympic debut in Turin in 2006.

‘Last Olympics’

Svindal admitted in the afterglow of winning gold that his illustrious career was drawing to close.

“I guess this is the beginning of the end somehow, definitely my last Olympics. Nothing is 100% sure but that’s very, very close to being 100% sure,” he added.

The Sochi downhill gold medalist, Matthias Mayer of Austria, finished ninth to continue the streak that no one has won back-to-back men’s downhill titles in the 70-year history of the event at the Winter Games.

The men’s speed skiers will contest the rearranged super-G at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre Friday.