Suter confirms Swiss dominance with Olympic downhill gold

YANQING DISTRICT, Beijing: Corinne Suter confirmed Switzerland's alpine skiing dominance at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday (Feb 15) when she streaked to victory in the women's downhill for the country's fourth gold and fifth of the Games.

The 27-year-old clocked 1 min 31.87 seconds down the 2.7km-long "Rock" course in Yanqing, finishing 0.16 seconds ahead of defending champion Sofia Goggia of Italy, whose silver capped a remarkable return to form after she injured her knee in a crash last month.

A second Italian, Nadia Delago, claimed bronze, 0.57 seconds adrift of Suter.

"I'm super happy with my run," said Suter. "In the finish I wasn't sure if it was good or not because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side.

"It's the biggest dream of my life."

Suter, who became only the second skier since now-retired American Lindsey Vonn to win Olympic gold after the world title, added: "At the moment we have a very good team spirit.

"In our group, everyone's super fast and we can push each other to our limits."

Goggia had no complaints with her silver, saying: "It's an unbelievable medal because of the condition of the last 20 days.

"I'm glad I gave everything to be here today, I'm glad and grateful that I could achieve another medal."

Suter's win followed Swiss gold-medal showings by Lara Gut-Behrami in the women's super-G, Beat Feuz in the men's downhill at the start of the Games, and Marco Odermatt in the men's giant slalom.

It is the first time Switzerland have won the two downhill events at the same Olympics since Bernhard Russi and Marie-Theres Nadig achieved the feat at the 1972 Sapporo Games.

Gut-Behrami, who has also won giant slalom bronze in these Games, had complained