BEIJING — Just like his father did more than three decades ago, Austrian skier Johannes Strolz won the Olympic gold medal in the Alpine combined race.
Not bad for a guy who wasn’t even on the national team until about a month ago.
The 29-year-old Strolz, who has only ever won one World Cup slalom, was fourth-fastest after the downhill run on Thursday. But he was half a second quicker than anyone else in the slalom, helping him edge first-run leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway by 0.58 seconds.
The combined adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.
Strolz’s father, Hubert, won gold in combined at the 1988 Calgary Games. Hubert Strolz also won silver in the giant slalom that year and almost won another Olympic combined four years later but missed a gate near the end of the second run and was disqualified.
“It’s really a great moment for me and I’m so thankful that I finally can live my dream and have this gold medal in my hands like my father did in 1988 in Calgary and, yeah, just a dream come true,” Strolz said. “The gold medal really means the world to me.”
Strolz had a career-best finish of 10th in more than eight years of World Cup racing before winning last month in Adelboden, when he wasn’t even an official member of the Austrian team after being dropped.
That victory, however, earned him a spot on the team for the Beijing Games, where he is continuing to prepare his own slalom skis — as he has done all season. A member of the team prepares Strolz’s downhill skis.
“It is truly an amazing story,” said Andreas Puelacher, the head coach of Austria’s men’s team. “We knew he was a fast skier in the downhill side and in slalom you’ve seen Adelboden, it was perfect. And after the downhill [today] I can imagine he can make a medal but gold medal it’s another story.
“I think he had no pressure today. He was successful in Adelboden … and for him it was easy skiing here with this snow conditions and that’s the reason.”
Jack Crawford of Canada finished…
Source : espn
