Olympics Men’s Super-G medal results, highlights and more

Norway missed out on the gold medal in the Super-G at the Olympics for the first time in the 21st century. Here’s how the Alpine showdown went down.

First, though, a little bit of history. The Super-G made its Olympic debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Prior to the start of Pyeongchang 2018, Norwegians had taken the gold medal in five of the eight previous opportunities.

That included a streak of gold in four straight Olympic Super-G competitions. Kjetil André Aamont won the first three of Norway’s golds in the event. His first came as a 20-year-old at the Albertville Games in 1992. That, of course, was the last Winter Olympics held on the same cycle as the Summer Games.

Aamont followed that up his Albertville gold with a bronze in front of a home crowd at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics. He failed to reach the podium in Nagano four years later, but a decade after his first win in the Super-G Aamont won back-to-back gold medals in Salt Lake City and Torino.

In Vancouver in 2010, Aksel Lund Svindal claimed the event as the torch was passed on to a new generation of Norwegian stars. Svindal ceded the top spot to Kjetil Jansrud in 2014 on the Rosa Khutor hill at the Sochi Olympics. The duo claimed a historic gold-silver finish in the downhill. Jansrud and Svindal, currently sitting No. 1 and No. 2 in the FIS World Cup Super-G standings, came into this year’s Olympics as the favorites to keep Norway’s streak alive.

So that’s the backstory to why this year’s Super-G proved so significant.

Jansrud and Svindal looked for a time like they might both reach the podium. Skiing seventh, Jansrud’s time of 1:24.62 held through the next eight contenders. That included Svindal, who skied ninth and finished 0.31 seconds behind his countryman.

Then along came Matthias Mayer of Austria. Racing 15th, Mayer clipped Jansrud’s time by 0.18 seconds to take over the top spot. It was sweet vengeance for Mayer, who was bested by both Norwegians in his bid to repeat as the Olympic gold medalist in the downhill.

MEDAL RESULT | Alpine Skiing Men's Downhill

Matthias Mayer

Beat Feuz

Kjetil Jansrud

Only one skier really challenged Mayer’s time. Beat Feuz, skiing right after the Austrian, came within 0.13 seconds of Mayer. In the process, he pipped Jansrud for the silver and relegated Norway to bronze in the event it has owned at the Olympics this century.

Svindal ultimately finished fifth, as France’s Blaise Giezendanner passed him by just over a tenth of a second. After the thrill of claiming Norway’s first-ever victory in the downhill, the Super-G forced the Scandinavian stars and their entire country to feel the agony of defeat.

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