Matthias Mayer storms to Super-G gold for Austria

Updated 16/02/2018 at 04:57 GMT

Matthias Mayer won the second Olympic gold of his career on Friday, beating Beat Fuez to the Super-G title.

Ski Alpin: Matthias Mayer (Österreich)

Image credit: Getty Images

The 27-year-old Austrian produced a storming run of 1:24.44 to add a Super-G title to his 2014 Downhill title from the Sochi Games.

Mayer had suffered a disappointing week prior to Friday's race, finishing down in ninth in Thursday's Downhill and crashing out in spectacular fashion in the Alpine Combined, wiping out a cameraman in the process.

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Super-G was Mayer's third and final chance of picking up a medal in Pyeongchang, but he coped with the pressure of chasing quick times from Norwegian pair Kjetil Jansrud, Blaise Giezendanner and Aksel Lund Svindal to win by a margin of 13 hundredths of a second.

It was a second super-G medal for the Mayer family after Matthias's father Helmut won a silver in the inaugural running of the event at Calgary in 1988 and brought the title back to Austria two decades after Hermann Maier's triumph in Nagano. Mayer said:

Four years ago I won the Downhill and now today I'm Olympic champion in Super-G. I have no words for that. I had bib number 15 so I could watch five, six racers at the start and that was good for me so I could make my own line.

Defending champion Jansrud had hoped to give Norway a fifth successive gold, but while his time of 1:24.62 gave him the early lead, it was ultimately only good enough for a bronze to add to his silver in the downhill.

Swiss Beat Feuz finished third behind Svindal and Jansrud in Thursday's Downhill but produced a beautifully controlled run of 1:24.57 straight after Mayer to claim silver.

"Unbelievable!" the Downhill world champion said. "Yesterday bronze and today silver is really fantastic, I hadn't counted on that."

Svindal was fifth in 1:24.93 behind French surprise package Blaise Giezendanner (1.24.82) after losing control and nearly fouling on the final gate, but the 2010 champion refused to blame the quick turnaround from his downhill triumph.

"I chose to look at it as an advantage," the 35-year-old said. "Of course you get less sleep because even though you try to go to bed at 10 o'clock, there's no way you can sleep.

"We got a gold yesterday so it feels pretty good."

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Full Standings

1. Matthias Mayer (Austria) 1:24.44
2. Beat Feuz (Switzerland) 1:24.57
3. Kjetil Jansrud (Norway) 1:24.62
4. Blaise Giezendanner (France) 1:24.82
5. Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) 1:24.93
6. Vincent Kriechmayr (Austria) 1:25.13
7. Dominik Paris (Italy) 1:25.18
8. Andreas Sander (Germany) 1:25.21
9. Dustin Cook (Canada) 1:25.23
10. Bostjan Kline (Slovenia) 1:25.36
11. Hannes Reichelt (Austria) 1:25.40
12. Thomas Dressen (Germany) 1:25.51
13. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Norway) 1:25.71
14. Ryan Cochran-Siegle (U.S.) 1:25.72
15. Adrien Theaux (France) 1:25.76
16. Christof Innerhofer (Italy) 1:25.90
17. Max Franz (Austria) 1:25.96
18. Maxence Muzaton (France) 1:26.08
19. Brice Roger (France) 1:26.10
20. Gilles Roulin (Switzerland) 1:26.20
21. Manuel Osborne-Paradis (Canada) 1:26.39
22. Klemen Kosi (Slovenia) 1:26.50
23. Thomas Tumler (Switzerland) 1:26.52
24. Josef Ferstl (Germany) 1:26.81
25. Joan Verdu (Andorra) 1:26.86
. Peter Fill (Italy) DNF
. Mauro Caviezel (Switzerland) DNF
. Ted Ligety (U.S.) DNF
. Andrew Weibrecht (U.S.) DNF
. Martin Cater (Slovenia) DNF

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