Dubai Telegraph - Switzerland's Beat Feuz wins men's Olympic downhill

EUR -
AED 4.187692
AFN 81.52281
ALL 99.308609
AMD 445.021751
ANG 2.054819
AOA 1046.060528
ARS 1326.735128
AUD 1.778927
AWG 2.052208
AZN 1.942723
BAM 1.96349
BBD 2.301946
BDT 138.518614
BGN 1.96133
BHD 0.429691
BIF 3342.818704
BMD 1.140116
BND 1.498497
BOB 7.877959
BRL 6.487718
BSD 1.14008
BTN 97.320458
BWP 15.714757
BYN 3.730732
BYR 22346.26419
BZD 2.2901
CAD 1.583222
CDF 3280.112763
CHF 0.944173
CLF 0.027778
CLP 1065.951457
CNY 8.308825
CNH 8.310114
COP 4814.650835
CRC 577.067809
CUC 1.140116
CUP 30.213061
CVE 110.93768
CZK 25.057578
DJF 202.621779
DKK 7.489652
DOP 67.324269
DZD 150.94108
EGP 57.848659
ERN 17.101733
ETB 149.473561
FJD 2.574324
FKP 0.855348
GBP 0.856393
GEL 3.124362
GGP 0.855348
GHS 17.455613
GIP 0.855348
GMD 82.088723
GNF 9867.70023
GTQ 8.780506
GYD 238.519445
HKD 8.844093
HNL 29.419357
HRK 7.559313
HTG 148.86961
HUF 406.964677
IDR 19158.501196
ILS 4.124887
IMP 0.855348
INR 97.348593
IQD 1493.551331
IRR 47998.863789
ISK 145.764209
JEP 0.855348
JMD 180.426682
JOD 0.808461
JPY 163.803862
KES 147.649294
KGS 99.70354
KHR 4578.704327
KMF 493.104288
KPW 1026.114005
KRW 1639.908397
KWD 0.349731
KYD 0.950034
KZT 587.047026
LAK 24654.998515
LBP 102009.807837
LKR 341.611519
LRD 228.016076
LSL 21.291702
LTL 3.366465
LVL 0.689645
LYD 6.230776
MAD 10.551814
MDL 19.67733
MGA 5144.775565
MKD 61.684625
MMK 2393.328481
MNT 4045.501137
MOP 9.108796
MRU 45.126204
MUR 51.681868
MVR 17.569611
MWK 1976.88627
MXN 22.237388
MYR 4.986909
MZN 72.967786
NAD 21.297788
NGN 1834.127069
NIO 41.954878
NOK 11.906968
NPR 155.710191
NZD 1.912641
OMR 0.438433
PAB 1.14008
PEN 4.183658
PGK 4.620932
PHP 64.068836
PKR 320.315882
PLN 4.28598
PYG 9119.358087
QAR 4.151204
RON 4.996675
RSD 117.931213
RUB 93.79415
RWF 1614.403576
SAR 4.276502
SBD 9.524881
SCR 16.189269
SDG 684.643561
SEK 11.045132
SGD 1.49823
SHP 0.895952
SLE 25.884803
SLL 23907.633881
SOS 651.580195
SRD 42.048644
STD 23598.089378
SVC 9.974674
SYP 14823.574645
SZL 21.297779
THB 38.205692
TJS 12.062008
TMT 4.001805
TND 3.415829
TOP 2.670269
TRY 43.835122
TTD 7.744435
TWD 37.111943
TZS 3066.911131
UAH 47.678379
UGX 4179.203844
USD 1.140116
UYU 47.594955
UZS 14764.496363
VES 94.985213
VND 29667.516001
VUV 138.090545
WST 3.151197
XAF 658.550803
XAG 0.034457
XAU 0.000343
XCD 3.08122
XDR 0.819694
XOF 656.140581
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.446408
ZAR 21.29474
ZMK 10262.411907
ZMW 31.836112
ZWL 367.116732
  • SCS

    -0.0600

    9.89

    -0.61%

  • CMSD

    0.0100

    22.46

    +0.04%

  • BCC

    -0.5800

    95.51

    -0.61%

  • JRI

    0.1400

    12.74

    +1.1%

  • NGG

    -0.2200

    72.04

    -0.31%

  • AZN

    0.0200

    69.57

    +0.03%

  • CMSC

    0.0000

    22.33

    -0%

  • GSK

    -0.0700

    37.43

    -0.19%

  • RIO

    -1.1300

    60.56

    -1.87%

  • BTI

    -0.4000

    42.05

    -0.95%

  • BP

    0.1900

    29.19

    +0.65%

  • BCE

    -0.3600

    21.65

    -1.66%

  • RBGPF

    60.8800

    60.88

    +100%

  • VOD

    0.0400

    9.35

    +0.43%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    10.16

    +0.1%

  • RELX

    0.3800

    53.55

    +0.71%

Switzerland's Beat Feuz wins men's Olympic downhill
Switzerland's Beat Feuz wins men's Olympic downhill

Switzerland's Beat Feuz wins men's Olympic downhill

Switzerland's Beat Feuz scorched to gold in the men's Olympic downhill on Monday in a dramatic race that pitted skiers against an unforgiving course that was untested before the Games.

Text size:

The Swiss racer clocked 1min 42.69sec, finishing 0.10sec ahead of 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey, while Austrian Matthias Mayer claimed a third Olympic medal in three Games with bronze.

An elated Feuz whooped in the finish area after he saw the green light signifying he had taken the lead. He flicked one ski high in the air and sent it twirling skywards, to the delight of a crowd of a few hundred people made up mainly of volunteers and team members.

Pre-race favourite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway was pushed out of the medals, finishing fifth.

Feuz, who won downhill bronze in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, and 2014 champion Mayer became just the eighth and ninth skiers to win multiple Olympic medals in the downhill.

Cascading down the testing "Rock" piste with a vertical drop of 890 metres (2,920 feet), skiers quickly reached motorway-cruising speeds of 140 kilometres per hour (87 miles per hour).

They soared in excess of 40 metres off some of the five jumps that punctuate a rolling man-made course offering stunning cloudless views.

A rip-roaring, snaky upper section that left racers in no doubt about what awaited them.

Arms and poles flailed as skiers tried desperately to maintain equilibrium.

- Wise heads -

There was early drama as Germany's Dominik Schwaiger, starting with bib number two, suffered a crash in which he lost a ski, collided with the safety netting and slowly came to a halt in the middle of the piste, writhing in pain as he clutched what looked like a nastily injured forearm.

He was evacuated by stretcher, while Austrian Daniel Hemetsberger screamed past the finish line with blood streaming from his nose and mouth.

Feuz made no such mistake, however, the sturdy Swiss racer who thrives on testing pistes like the Streif in Kitzbuehel was best at negotiating the 40 gates of the 3.1km-long course, fashioned from artificial snow on a barren mountainscape in Yanqing, north of Beijing.

Two World Cup races on the hill, in 2020 and 2021, were cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions in China, meaning racers had little time for reconnaissance.

And it was the old heads that shone through.

Clarey's silver at the age of 41 beat the record for oldest Olympic medallist in alpine skiing that previously belonged to American Bode Miller, who claimed bronze in the men's super-G in 2014 aged 36 years and 127 days.

Defending champion Aksel Lund Svindal, who earned Norway's first ever men’s downhill gold medal in 2018, retired from the sport in 2019.

Much weighed on the shoulders of Kilde in Svindal's absence, but the Norwegian's fifth place behind Canada's James Crawford completed a disappointing day for alpine skiing's golden couple after his girlfriend and US medal hope Mikaela Shiffrin skied out of the women's giant slalom.

World Cup overall leader Marco Odermatt of Switzerland finished seventh, at 0.71sec, behind Italy's Dominik Paris and ahead of Austria's current double world speed champion Vincent Kriechmayr.

B.Gopalan--DT