Johannes Strolz on emulating Dad's combined Olympic gold: "It's hard not to cry."

Johannes Strolz described replicating his father's feat of winning Alpine combined gold at Beijing 2022 as "a dream come true."

The Austrian borrowed a pair of skis from Super-G champion and teammate Matthias Mayer for the downhill before producing the fastest slalom run of the day to make history.

He finished half a second clear of Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde with James Crawford of Canada taking bronze having never made a World Cup podium.

Strolz's victory was all the more remarkable as he was dropped from the national team last year following a string of poor results.

He returned to the World Cup circuit in December 2021 and, after failing to finish in his first two races, claimed his first World Cup win in last month's Adelboden slalom to book his spot in Beijing.

Following in his father's ski trails

His father, Hubert Strolz, won Alpine combined gold at Calgary 1988 as well as giant slalom silver.

Matching that achievement had been a lifelong dream, and it was barely more than a dream again until recently.

Strolz told Olympics.com, "It means the world to me because I was not on the team anymore last summer, and made it back into the team, got the full support again.

"Especially with the history of my father, it means so much to me.

"I'm so thankful for the support of so many people. First of all, I have to thank my whole family. They always believed in me and now it's a dream coming true, making the same gold medal like my father did."

Strolz Sr and Jr are the first parent and offspring to win the same event at the Olympic Winter Games.

"When I think about it, all the pictures and the gold medal of my father, it's hard for me not to cry. It's just a dream coming true," Johannes says.

Success has been a long time coming for Strolz Jr whose career-best finish before his Adelboden breakthrough was 10th.

"Finally all the sacrifices and the hard work paid off," he added.