Medals update: Marco Odermatt wins Switzerland's third gold of Beijing 2022 in Alpine skiing

Already a superstar in his own country with his face plastered over advertising everywhere you look, Marco Odermatt is now set for megastar status after winning the men's giant slalom event at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre on Sunday (13 February) in a combined time of 2:09.35 from the two runs. Lara Gut-Behrami won the same discipline for Switzerland in the women's event on Friday (11 December) with Beat Feuz also winning the men's downhill to give Switzerland three gold medals in Alpine skiing so far at Beijing 2022.

Holding his nerve after going into the second run just 0.04 seconds ahead of Stefan Brennsteiner of Austria, Odermatt roared in delight on seeing he'd won the Olympic title 0.19 seconds ahead of a still delighted Zan Kranjec. The Slovenian claimed silver after a superb second run enabled him to climb onto the podium from eighth place after the first run to a silver medal in a time of 2:09.54.

After a mistake on his second run, Brennsteiner finished well down the field in 27th place.

"It's unbelievable," said Odermatt post race. "It was a hard day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two runs. It was more than five hours for me, it was such a long time to re-think everything and it was hard to stay focused. I tried to sleep some minutes inbetween. I actually never dreamt about it but now it still feels like a dream."

"I don't fully understand it yet. In (Republic of) Korea (Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018) I was fourth so you never know if you will get another chance to fight for a medal," Kranjec said of his first run eighth-place finish. "After the first run I said maybe it's over, I don't have any more chance. But my second run was really good. It's unbelievable.

"My family, my friends supported me, they believed in me. I know they are celebrating right now. It's in the middle of the night (in Slovenia) but it doesn't matter right now."

Despite an error, France's Mathieu Faivre claimed the bronze medal in 2:10.69, rising an impressive 10 places after the first run.

"It's been a tough day, it's been a nervous day, it's been a long day to the second run," said Faivre post race. "I didn't feel really good in the second run actually, it was really tough because of the conditions, because of the surface. But I finished the day with an Olympic medal and I am so happy about it."

The leopard-spotted haircut belonging to River Radamus sadly didn't make an appearance on the podium with the American finishing in fourth (2:10.95) with Faivre's compatriot's Thibaut Favrot and Alexis Pinturault finishing in equal fifth place with a time of 2:11.04. Odermatt's teammate Gino Caviezel finished in seventh.

One of the favourite's for the title, Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen – who won a silver medal in this discipline at PyeongChang 2018 and was the world champion in 2019 – made a big error to put him out of contention but Andorra's Joan Verdu had a cracking two runs to finish ninth, just one place behind Kristoffersen.

Results of the men's giant slalom at Beijing 2022:
1. Marco Odermatt 2:09.35
2. Zan Kranjec 2:09.54
3. Mathieu Faivre 2:10.69

The next Alpine skiing event is the women's downhill on Tuesday 15 February.