Switzerland's Gut-Behrami wins gold in super-G

YANQING DISTRICT, Beijing: Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami won the women's super-G at the Beijing Olympics on Friday (Feb 11) with a time of 1:13.51 to end her run of agonising near misses in the event and give her country their first gold in the event.

Reigning super-G world champion Gut-Behrami, who had finished fourth in the event in the past two Winter Olympics, was 0.22 seconds quicker than silver medallist Mirjam Puchner of Austria.

The Swiss also picked up a bronze medal with Michelle Gisin 0.30 seconds behind her team-mate's winning time.

Surprisingly for a country with such a pedigree in the sport, no Swiss skier, male or female had won gold in super-G before Gut-Behrami's triumph.

American Mikaela Shiffrin, who had failed to finish in her two favoured events, slalom and giant slalom, ended in ninth position, 0.79 seconds off Gut-Behrami's time.

Gut-Behrami, who claimed bronze here in the giant slalom on Monday, had missed out on the podium by a hundredth of a second in Pyeongchang and seven hundredths in Sochi.

She said that this time she put tactics out of her mind.

"I had no strategy at all. I just tried to ski. This is what has always been a little bit of a problem in the past - thinking what to do and what to do better. Now I just try and ski," she said.

"I love super-G, I told myself it's not a different course to lots I have skied before," she added.

Having come out of the hut as the seventh runner down, the Swiss grabbed the lead from Puchner and then had a long wait to see her victory confirmed.

"I was so nervous in the finish someone would come faster. I am trying to enjoy it, but I think I am going to need a few more days to understand what is going on," she said.

Gut-Behrami joins Katja Seizinger of Germany and