DAY #11 SPORTS FOCUS: Swiss Suter surpasses Goggia for downhill victory becoming Switzerland’s unprecedented fourth Olympic alpine skiing gold medalist at Beijing 2022

Executing a well-calculated gameplan and with precision in every turn, Swiss Corinne Suter denied defending champion Sofia Goggia’s a second consecutive Olympic downhill victory, knocking the Italian off the pedestal to achieve her first Olympic gold medal.

Suter, the 14th racer to descend the snaking, 3.2-kilometer women’s downhill course known as ‘The Rock,’ overtook Goggia, who skied just before her. Goggia delivered a gutsy run, considering her recent knee injury, culminating with an exuberant celebration in the finish area. However, the 27-year-old Swiss world champion gained three-tenths on the Italian in the lower Canyons section of the piste, dropping Goggia to second by 0.22 seconds, clocking a time of 1:31.87.

Suter’s stellar run held up for her first Olympic gold medal, the achievement coming at her second Games.

“It’s my biggest dream in my life, so today I don’t know what to say,” Suter said. “I just wanted to ski as fast I could. From the first training run I really liked the slope here and also the snow is really good.”

Suter joins her Swiss teammates Lara Gut-Behrami, Beat Feuz and Marco Odermatt as Olympic champions in Beijing. The Swiss performance marks the first time dating to ski racing’s debut at St. Moritz 1948 that one country has had four athletes win alpine skiing gold. Switzerland also has sped to three bronze medal, adding to their impressive total of seven at these Games.

“When you have such a strong team you can push yourself more to the limit and also in my group with Lara there are many, many girls who are really fast and you want to be as fast as them and then you push every day,” Suter said.

It also is only the third time in Olympic alpine skiing history that one country has four gold medalists at a single Games. Austria accomplished the feat in Turin 2006 (Benjamin Raich 2, Michaela Dorfmeister 2) and France in Grenoble 1968 (Jean-Claude Killy 3, Marielle Goitschel 1).

Switzerland’s four gold medals have come in eight events thus far for an astounding 50% winning percentage. There are three events still to come and it seems highly likely that Switzerland will add to their medal collection.

Michelle Gisin is the defending Olympic champion in the Alpine combined, Daniel Yule and Loic Meillard are both in the World Cup top ten with the men’s slalom ahead on Wednesday, and the country is the reigning team event Olympic champions with that event closing the Beijing 2022 race program.

‘Never say Die’ Italian speed ‘Queen’

Sofia Goggia knows how to ski race only one way – always on the edge, pushing the threshold between high-speed success and sudden danger. Sometimes it leads to victory and other times a trip to the hospital, as was the case three weeks ago following a bruising crash at her home race super-G in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Goggia never gave up on an improbable, warp-speed comeback from an injured left knee and leg, rehabilitating quickly and only returning to skiing while in China, an effort that astoundingly paid off considering her unexpected silver medal. Her Italian teammate Nadia Delago was a surprise bronze medalist.

After the Italian “Boss” crossed the finish line taking the lead, she screamed “Yeah!” for what seemed like an eternity and then proceeded to kiss the finish area camera lense.

“I started in Cortina with this crash and the crowd was in full silence because it was our home race,” the 29-year-old Goggia said, after her silver medal run. " I had really many doubts about walking because I broke both of my knees and I said to myself I cannot make it to the Olympics.

But then my friends hugged me before leaving Cortina and they told me you have to be strong in your mind because it is just a minor injury and you could overcome it.

“I was in tears on the helicopter to Milan and when the doctor told me you have something with the ACL, my heart was broken. But he told me you can be back on skis in 15 days and I was really surprised because I was really down and not able to walk.

But Goggia persevered and never gave up to make the journey to Beijing. Then she briefly lost hope yet again after another crash in last week’s super-G.

“For me, it’s not easy to get up from bed and walk without pain, but when I am on skis I have trust my leg, but I didn’t give up and so I’m really proud of this,” Goggia said.

Goggia’s teammate Delago, who claimed bronze, raced one position after her older sister Nicole. The two sisters shared a warm embrace in the finish area after the younger one nabbed the lead from their other teammate Elena Curtoni, Delago’s time holding up for her first Olympic medal.

American Mikaela Shiffrin remains without a medal at Beijing 2022, having skied smart and carefully, finishing 18th. The three-time overall World Cup champion and three-time Olympic medalist still has two Olympic races remaining.

French racer Camille Cerutti abruptly lost control upon landing off the Saddleback jump, became twisted, fell, lost both skis, screamed in pain while sliding down the piste for what seemed like ages. Her condition is not fully known at the moment.

Chinese snowboarder soars to big air gold, German bobsled teams 1-2 as Friedrich looks to repeat as Olympic champion

He threw two enormous 1800s (front and backside) in his first two runs, enough to propel 17-year-old Su Yiming to a gold medal in men’s snowboard big air, in what was a tense day of high-flying competition at the Shougang Industrial Park.

It was the first-ever snowboard gold medal for the People’s Republic of China.

“This moment is just so special for me and for my family,” said Yiming of the historic gold. “We have been dreaming about this moment for a long time and finally it has happened.

“This is my first Olympics Games and I just wanted to enjoy it,” Yiming continued. “It’s about snowboarding and that is what I love to do.”

It was China’s sixth gold medal and 12th medal in total at these Games.

Preparing for today’s third and final heats in the men’s two-man bobsleigh, dominant German pilot Francesco Friedrich and brakeman Thorsten Margis possess a 0.15 second lead over their countrymen Johannes Lochner and Florian Bauer.

Friedrich, 31, who has been nearly unbeatable over the past two World Cup seasons, is seeking to defend both two-man and four-man gold medals from PyeongChang 2018, the final runs under the lights at China’s National Sliding Center on Tuesday.

NBC Olympics bobsleigh analyst and “voice of the sport” John Morgan elaborated upon Friedrich’s greatness comparing him to one legendary NFL quarterback.

“This is Tom Brady. Who [else] do you want to talk about in this sport? What he’s done in the last eight years – the only setback he had on his resume was the 2014 Olympics,” Morgan said. “The Germans changed sleds – if they would have stayed in these sleds that they’re in now, he would have medaled in that Olympics also.”

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