Swiss ace Beat Feuz conquers 'The Rock'

The world's top stars shone on the first medals day of the Alpine skiing competition at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, with Beat Feuz of Switzerland winning gold in the men's downhill and Sweden's Sara Hector topping the podium in the women's giant slalom.

"The Olympics are a big thing, and today it worked for me. In (Pyeongchang) four years ago I was second and third, but today everything came together. It means the world to me," said Feuz, who powered down the slopes of "The Rock" course at Yanqing's National Alpine Skiing Centre on Monday in 1 min 42.69 sec, with Frenchman Johan Clarey just 0.10 sec behind to claim silver.

"It was perfect weather, no wind, and I was just standing perfectly on the skis. A dream came true. I can't think of anything more beautiful than flying home with a gold medal around my neck," said Feuz.

Austria's Matthias Mayer took bronze in (1:42.85), while pre-race favorite Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, who leads the World Cup overall standings, finished fifth (1:43.20).

The 34-year-old Feuz will compete in the super-G on Tuesday, and told reporters that he was "looking forward to being at home and having my family back in my arms".

"Certainly tonight we'll celebrate together as a team, but in these COVID times and because the World Cup season continues, I'll have to delay the celebration until the spring."

The 41-year-old Clarey became the oldest Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing on Monday, and the veteran was satisfied with his performance in Yanqing.

"Down the course, I knew I made a good run. But in downhill you never know if you're fast or not," said the Frenchman, who replaced Bode Miller as the oldest Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing. Miller won bronze in super-G at the 2014 Sochi Games at the age of 36.

"But I made my perfect run. You never know if it's good enough to be on the podium or not, but when I saw the timing with the second place, it was just an unbelievable feeling," Clarey added.

"I keep calm. Of course my fourth Olympic Games was an advantage for me today, and I'm just happy with the way I handled it.

"I was a little nervous, for sure. But I was second, so one guy could go in front of me, so I was OK. It was a relief to see that I would keep this medal around my neck."

Also on Monday, Sweden's Hector claimed women's giant slalom gold, while Italian Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland won silver and bronze, respectively.

"Crazy. I'm so proud, I can't put it into words. I really tried to push it and give it all I got. It's just amazing," said Hector.

Hector made her Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi Games, competing in three events. She had her top Olympic result in her one race at Pyeongchang 2018, finishing 10th in the giant slalom. So a gold medal in Beijing was truly hard-earned.

"I don't know how to describe my emotions. It's been so much all day. I've been so nervous. It's so much feeling, it's crazy. It's for sure a lot of joy," Hector added.

Despite missing out on the top spot, Brignone was still thrilled with silver.

"Four years ago I was third, and before coming here I said if I come back with one medal that would be a great dream for me. Doing it at the first race, it's amazing," said Brignone who won giant slalom bronze in Pyeongchang.

"I'm getting better and better with my confidence this year, but giant slalom was always like OK, I'm doing a run OK, or some splits OK, but never two runs. Today, I was really focused."

shifutian@chinadaily.com.cn