WHISTLER, B.C. - The Iceman might not have shown a lot of emotion as he won his Olympic gold medal in the men's giant slalom on Tuesday, but he said the feelings would sink in later.
Leading the race from the first run, Carlo Janka, the 23-year-old world GS champion showed nothing but cool as he again put down a nearly flawless second run for the gold as a thick cloud of stormy weather cast flat light and a few snowflakes onto the Dave Murray course at Whistler.
Continuing on the roll he began just before the Games with two straight GS podiums in Kranska Gora, Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud took the silver medal, 0.39 seconds behind Janka and was followed by his mighty countryman. Aksel Lund Svindal won his third Olympic medal and now has a complete set with the bronze, finishing 0.61 seconds back.
Followed into the press conference by a small crowd of men waving Norwegian flags and wearing Lederhosen, Svindal and Jansrud stepped onto the long table as the press conference began to display their team's rainbow tie-dyed training pants.
Janko, quietly signing autographs and smiling lightly as he weaved through the finish area crowd, said that he is happy to have the pressure off after his perfect GS performance.
"Before the pressure was really big," he said. "It was my last chance to make a medal. The pressure was there. After the finish line, the pressure was far away. It was a great feeling. I had no big mistakes from the top to the finish and that was the key for today."
Janko also said that he would prefer to have won an Olympic gold medal in downhill, but that gold in GS would be his second choice. Though his face looked impassive, he said the feelings that come with being an Olympic champion would set in later.
"I am relaxed now. I think I will realise it a little later how great it is to win," he said. "But now it is too early to realise it."
Jansrud, on the other hand, was nearly speechless about his silver, saying he didn't think it was possible coming into the second run with a 0.80 deficit to make up.
"It's unbelievable," he said. "Being up on the podium in the Olympic Games ... that's huge. After my first run today, it's something bigger. I felt like I had no chance to make the poidum. I don't have words to use. I got the silver ... I could have gotten eighth place or 10th."
Svindal was also pleased with his third Olympic medal. When asked what he thought about Didier Cuche, a favorite coming into the downhill, super G and GS and who finished the latter in similar fashion to the first two ... out of the medals (sixth in downhill and 10th in super G), this time in 14th, Svindal said that both success and bad luck usually come in waves for ski racers.
"I feel sorry for Didier because he has been the best speed skier this year," Svindal said. "For me it has been perfect, but for Didier it has been everything but perfect. That is the nature of the sport. Sometimes you are on a roll and sometimes everything goes against you."
Svindal pointed out that Cuche entered the Games with a broken thumb sustained in Kranska Gora and also crashed in warm up just before Tuesday's race.
The most heartening story of the day - especially for the Canadians who have had a disappointing run of their home Olympic alpine events - is that of Erik Guay.
Having not finished a giant slalom race on the World Cup in nearly two years, Guay barely squeezed into the top 30 after the first run in which he started No. 44 and proceeded to lead the race until he was replaced by Cuche nine racers later and held a podium spot until racer No. 17 came down. After taking fifth place in both the Olympic downhill and super G, he ended up 16th, with the second fastest second run time (one tenth behind Jansrud).
"I let it all hang out on the line," Guay said. "I took a few chances and it all paid off."
The Austrians, who haven't had any medals in men's alpine events yet this Olympics, finished in the undesirable positions of fourth, fifth and sixth. It was Marcel Hirscher, Romed Baumann and Benjamin Raich who took these spots, respectively. Hirscher and Raich both hooked their hands on gates in the second run - the single mistake that likely kept each away from a medal - but Baumann just couldn't gather speed in the second run, though he was second to Janka after the first.
"We have four, five, six ... It's the worst situation you can imagine," Baumann said. "I had some little problems down the whole way. But we have a strong slalom team - I hope they will fight it back for us."
Olympic alpine racing continues Wednesday with women's GS, followed by slalom on Friday and wraps up with men's slalom Saturday.
by Shauna Farnell
