Alpine skiing-Von Allmen strikes gold again with more than a little help from his friend

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 9 : Even the fastest man currently on two skis needs a little help from a friend sometimes as Swiss young gun Franjo von Allmen proved on Monday in winning his second gold medal in 48 hours at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.

The 24-year-old was only fourth-fastest in the downhill leg of the men's team combined down a Stelvio course on which he roared to victory in the individual downhill on Saturday.

All he could do then was sit back and hope team mate Tanguy Nef could pull out something special in the slalom leg later.

The unheralded 29-year-old Nef, who has never won a World Cup slalom, obliged in stunning fashion, weaving slickly through the 67 turning gates to set a combined target time of 2:44.04 that proved beyond anyone else.

Von Allmen and Nef ended up winning by a commanding 0.99 seconds, leaving Switzerland's top-ranked pair Marco Odermatt and Loic Meillard to share the silver medals with Austrian duo Vincent Kriechmayr and a charging Manuel Feller.

"The first one was on my own, still special, but this even a little bit more special because I wouldn't have made it on my own today," Von Allmen told Reuters.

"I can really say thank you to Tanguy. He made the difference today. I had a really (weak) knees down here in the finish. I definitely ski better than I watch races, I think.

"Tanguy nailed it today."

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Nef's previous claim to fame was a silver medal at the 2025 world championships alongside Alexis Monney when the new team combined event featuring one run in each discipline skied by two different skiers, was rolled out and the Swiss swept the podium.

Paired this time with Von Allmen, he went one better.

"It felt really good. I knew I had a lot of speed and was, 'OK, now just