"Oh, oh, oh. So good. So good."
The words of "Sweet Caroline" reverberated through the narrow Alpine valley hosting the skiing world championships as the crowd of 22,500 belted out the famous lyrics in celebration of Austrian veteran and home favourite Vincent Kriechmayr.
Oh no was the response from Swiss upstart Franjo von Allmen two skiers later.
The 23-year-old Von Allmen pushed Kriechmayr down a spot and grabbed gold in the marquee men's downhill on Sunday in Saalbach-Hinterglemm to announce himself as the sport's next big thing.
Take it from Marco Odermatt, the already established star of the Swiss team who took gold in super-G two days earlier and placed fifth this time.
"He can win every race," Odermatt said.
WATCH l Von Allmen captures downhill gold at world championships:
Switzerland's Franjo von Allmen's 1st career win comes at world championship in men's downhill
Von Allmen trailed Kriechmayr at the penultimate checkpoint on the Schneekristall (snow crystal) course before accelerating through the last gates and soaring 48 metres — more than half the length of a football field — off the final jump.
Von Allmen finished 0.24 seconds ahead of silver medallist Kriechymayr and 0.31 ahead of bronze medallist Alexis Monney, another rising Swiss racer.
"It's crazy," Von Allmen said as the Swiss fans in the crowd took over with their chants of "Hopp Suisse" (Go Switzerland). "One day it's Odermatt, the other day two other athletes from the Swiss team. It's really fun we can push each other like this. It's pretty, pretty cool."
Live streaming coverage through the alpine ski world championships event will be available on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.
Toronto native Jack Crawford, who recently won the World Cup downhill
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