Gold medallist Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland celebrates on the podium after winning the men's downhill with silver medalist Giovanni Franzoni of Italy and bronze medalist Dominik Paris of Italy.Dylan Martinez/Reuters
Glory in the men’s downhill ski race went to Switzerland’s Franjo Von Allmen in the first medal event of the Milan Cortina Olympics. The upset victory saw him and two Italians knock the event favourite, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt, off the podium.
Von Allem took gold on the gloriously sunlit Stelvio race course with a time of 1:51.61, crushing Odermatt’s time by 0.70 seconds. Odermatt had been widely expected to nab gold or silver. Von Allem’s victory confirmed his meteoric rise in the sport.
Franjo von Allmen of Switzerland in action during the men's downhill.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
But the loudest cheers from the thousands of spectators at the base of the notoriously difficult Stelvio track in Bormio, went to Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni, 24, another rising star. Franzoni placed only 0.20 seconds behind Franjo von Allmen, handing him silver.
Italian racing veteran Dominik Paris, 32, who has won 24 World Cups and is virtually a household name in Italy, took bronze, no doubt a disappointment for him since he is so close to retirement. Paris has been dubbed “the King of the Stelvio” since he has won six downhill races on the track.
Odermatt came in fourth and another Swiss, Alexis Monney, landed fifth, handing the Swiss and Italians a clean sweep of the top-five positions. Canada’s James (Jack) Crawford, who placed ninth, and Kyle Negomir of the U.S., in 10th position, were the only two non-Europeans in the top 10. There is no doubt that the Europeans own this event.
The Italian bronze and silver winners were no doubt thinking of Matteo Franzoso, their teammate who died last year after a crash in Chile during a training run. Franzoso was 25 and a close friend of Franzoni.
Canadian downhill skier James Crawford during his run.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The four Canadians in the event – Crawford, Cameron Alexander, Brodie Seger and Jeffrey Read – were clearly disappointed by their performances.
“I definitely brought a level that could have won the race today, just a few mistakes unfortunately cost me that podium,” Crawford told reporters after the race. “It’s a tough course … there’s a lot of exceptional guys up there, so when you make a mistake, it’s really hard to come back from it.”
Canada’s Seger, who placed 28th, was not at all happy about his run, which came after a hard training crash in the last month. “When you want it the most, you squeeze a little too hard and overdo it,” he said.
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The men’s downhill starting list was unusually short, with only 36 competitors, meaning, mathematically speaking, each had a 1-in-12 chance of reaching the podium. In 2022 in Beijing, there were 42 competitors; in 2018 in Pyeongchang there were 55. One of the early Olympics had more than 100 downhillers.
“This is the smallest Olympic men’s downhill field in history, since 1948,” said Aimee Berg, a freelance sports writer from New York who is covering the Milan Cortina Games. “But this does not diminish their accomplishments. It’s still a gnarly course.”
One Israeli and one Irishman were also on the starting list.
The notoriously difficult Stelvio track in Bormio.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The conditions were close to ideal. On Saturday morning, the sun was making a rare appearance and the temperature at the base of the Stelvio race course was just above 0 C. Fresh snow in recent days handed the race course a good, non-icy coverage, making it somewhat more forgiving than usual.
The Stelvio is often icy and in shade, making it one of the toughest and most dangerous downhills on the international circuit. It has a length of 3,442 metres, according to official Milan Cortina statistics. The vertical drop is 1,010 metres and the average incline is 34 per cent. It’s a highly technical run with no room for error.
The Stelvio terrifies lesser racers from the start to the finish, even some of the best ones.
Italy's Giovanni Franzoni during the men's downhill alpine skiing event in Bormio.DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images
The run’s maximum gradient is 63 per cent. The top speeds are reached near the top, right after the near-vertical start. The best racers can hit 150 km/hr within 15 seconds of their near free-fall. About half way down the course, they typically hit the Saint Peter’s Jump, with a 50 per cent plunge. They hit the jump at about 100kms/hr, then soar through the air for 50 to 60 metres, and land back on Earth at about 140kms/hr.
Aldo Anzi, a former member of the Italian national ski team who designed the course in the early 1980s, describes the Saint Peter’s Jump as “the wall.”
American racer Bryce Bennett has said he suffered “trauma” plunging down the Stelvio. Italy’s Christof Innerhofer, 41, a two-time Olympic medal winner who was the 2011 Super-G World Champion, told The Globe and Mail ahead of Saturday’s race that the Stelvio will be the “toughest” men’s Olympic downhill in many decades – and possibly the most exciting.