Lara Gut-Behrami claims her first Olympic Super G medal and it's gold. The Swiss finished ahead of Mirjam Puchner, with teammate Michelle Gisin in 3rd place.
It is Gut-Behrami's third Olympic medal - but the first gold medal-, after winning bronze in the Giant Slalom on Monday and Downhill bronze in Sochi in 2014. The 30-year-old wins the first gold medal for a Swiss woman in the Super-G at the Winter Games. Gut-Behrami’s gold comes after two consecutive fourth-place finishes in Super-G at the Olympics in PyeongChang 2018 and Sochi 2014.
She has also achieved a special feat: As the reigning world champion in a discipline, no one has managed to become an Olympic champion before her.
“I was definitely more nervous at the finish than at the start. I can't forget what happened in Sochi and Pyeongchang and someone would come faster to beat me. Now I am trying to enjoy it, but I think I am going to need a few more days to understand what is going on”, said Gut-Behrami.
With three Olympic medals, six World Championship medals, the Overall World Cup victory in 2016, 3 small Crystal Globes in Super-G, 34 World Cup victories (17 of them in Super-G), and a total of 64 podium finishes - Lara Gut-Behrami is one of the greats in the world ski circus.
"I didn't realize that I've already accomplished a lot. I would have signed for this career when I was 17. In the past, I always felt I had more to prove. but in the last few years, my way of thinking has changed. That gives me a different kind of relaxation", she added.
Mirjam Puchner was only 0.22 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. Despite it being her first start at the Olympics, she hardly felt nervous. She lost the decisive time to the Olympic champion, especially in the technical middle section. After Katharina Liensberger, Puchner secured the second medal for Austria's women's skiers at the games in Beijing.
"I'm super happy. I never would have expected that. It's unbelievable that it's going so well today. I knew that I could do it, but it also had to work out. The last few years were so difficult, but last year and this year I got the joy back. That's the reward. I didn't do well in the middle part, but then I did it great in the final section", said Puchner.
The bronze medal for Gisin is a great satisfaction. In the slalom, the Swiss woman had taken second place at halftime but then fell back to sixth place. Now the combined Olympic champion from Pyeongchang managed to get a second Olympic medal.
"It was hard, I wanted it so much in the slalom and I have been closer than ever. But at some point I had to tell myself that I was done with self-pity", said Gisin.
The sad story of the day today came after Gisin's third place. That meant Tamara Tippler missed the bronze medal in fourth place by a mere three hundredths.
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