Winter Olympics 2022 - Beat Feuz snatches gold in men's downhill, 41-year-old Johan Clarey wins silver

Updated 07/02/2022 at 09:43 GMT

Beat Feuz produced a stunning display to win the first Olympic gold medal of his career. Feuz becomes the first Swiss man to achieve more than two Olympic medals in Alpine skiing after his excellent performance. Runner-up Johan Clarey becomes the oldest man to win an Olympic medal in alpine ski racing aged 41.

‘He is flying’ – Feuz ‘steals’ dramatic gold in downhill at Beijing 2022

Beat Feuz produced a fine run to win gold in the men's downhill at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Centre in Beijing.

The Swiss racer, who won super-G silver and downhill bronze in Pyeongchang 2018, snatched top spot from Matthias Mayer with a special run of 1:42.69 to claim his first ever gold medal.

Johan Clarey, aged 41, surged into silver medal position after producing the race of his life with a time of 1:42.79.

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Double Olympic champion Mayer, who took downhill gold in Sochi 2014 and super-G gold in Pyeongchang 2018, had to settle for bronze. He went full attack in the second half of his run and recorded a time of 1:43.45.

Clarey told Eurosport: "I have to calm down a little and think about what I did but it's just unbelievable. I know it was a perfect record for me. I knew had a good run but you never know in downhill if you are fast or not. A silver medal here is just fantastic.

"It's just hard to realise what I've just done. If someone had told me this morning, I wouldn't have believed it. It's been a tiring week for me, everyone tells me it's great at 41. [But] 41 is hard to get back into it, every day. Yesterday I lost a lot of energy. This morning I was tired. I managed to get myself back together and before the start, one minute before the start I was just good to do the job.

"I knew I made a good race but in Downhill you never know. First, 3rd or even 10th... with the wind. I had a pretty consistent race and I am surrounded by great champions on the podium."

‘It is all starting to sink in’ – Emotional Feuz breaks down in tears after winning gold

Mayer said: "It was not my best start but the rest of the race was really good. Beat was in really good shape and congratulations to him and his Olympic victory. I'm very happy with bronze."

The dry snow proved troubling for the women racers in the first run of the giant slalom on Monday and it would cause damage to Germany's Dominik Schwaiger, who was second out of the gate. He got his ski caught in the grippy snow and crashed into the fence, skidding 300m before requiring medical treatment which resulted in a 12 minute delay.

Four-time World Cup downhill champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, wearing bib number 13, was caught off guard by the extra speed of the upper part of the track, but the Norwegian recovered well and glided down the course cleanly.

He went 0.37 seconds off the pace going into the canyon and he could not make up enough ground, finishing in 1:43.20; 0.35 seconds behind his rival Mayer.

Kilde was instantly overtaken by Canada's James Crawford, who finished in fourth overall thanks to a blistering run, recording a time of 1:42.92.

Marco Odermatt had a disappointing race. After an impressive start, he was unable to carry his speed and finished in a time of 1:43.40 which forced the highly-rated 24-year-old to take seventh.