Alpine skiing-Swiss upstart Von Allmen stuns Odermatt to win downhill gold

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 7 : Swiss young gun Franjo von Allmen produced a stunning descent of the fearsome Stelvio to win the Olympic Alpine skiing men's downhill on Saturday as illustrious teammate and race favourite Marco Odermatt missed the podium.

The 24-year-old von Allmen barely put a ski off line as he blazed down the sunlit piste at speeds of 140 kph to win with a time of 1:51.61, smashing Odermatt's mark by 0.70 seconds.

"It feels like a movie," Von Allmen said after claiming the first gold medal of the Milano Cortina Games in front of hundreds of Swiss fans who had crossed the nearby border.

"I felt relaxed in the morning and tried to keep the good feeling from the training runs and fit all the pieces together. I knew it was a good run but to be seven-tenths ahead of Marco, I was surprised."

There had been high hopes that a strong cohort of Italian speed men could give the host nation the perfect start to the Games by winning the country's first Olympic men's downhill gold since 1952 in front of 7,000 fans.

But it was not to be.

Italian youngster Giovanni Franzoni - barely four months older than Von Allmen - produced a near-perfect run as well but was left clutching silver, 0.20 behind, while veteran Dominik Paris, the Stelvio king with a record six downhill wins on the iconic slope, bagged his first Olympic medal with bronze, 0.50 seconds further back.

"It's great to have this home crowd here. It's my fifth Olympics, and getting the first medal in front of the home crowd, that's really special," the 36-year-old said.

The 28-year-old Odermatt has dominated men's Alpine skiing for half a decade and was favourite to deliver Swiss gold in the blue-riband event and add to his giant slalom gold at the 2022 Games. But it was not