Alpine skiing

Beat Feuz Wins Fastest-Ever Downhill, 41-Year-Old Johan Clarey Takes Silver

For Feuz, widely considered the most consistent downhill skier ever, Olympic gold was the lone missing piece to a legendary resume in the sport’s fastest discipline

Beat Feuz of Switzerland in the men's downhill Alpine skiing race at Yanqing Alpine Skiing Centre.

In the fastest Alpine skiing race in Olympic history, Beat Feuz was quickest of all.

The 35-year-old Swiss averaged a Winter Games record 68.7 mph to win the men’s downhill gold medal, his first in three Olympic appearances. Feuz conquered “The Rock” downhill course in 1:42.69, edging 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey by one tenth of a second.

With his silver, Clarey became the oldest Olympic medalist in Alpine skiing history. Austria’s Matthias Mayer, a gold medalist at the previous two Winter Games, took bronze.

For Feuz, widely considered the most consistent downhill skier ever, Olympic gold was the lone missing piece to a legendary resume in the sport’s fastest discipline. He was crowned season-long champion in the downhill in every World Cup season from 2018-2021 and holds a total of 13 World Cup wins and 43 podiums. Feuz won two medals – a bronze in the downhill and silver in super-G – at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games.

Clarey had never won a medal in three previous tries at the Winter Olympics. His run drew cheers and applause from his fellow competitors at the bottom of the course. “Just having a medal, whether you’re 20 or 41 like I am, is just incredible,” the Frenchman said. Clarey replaces American Bode Miller, 36 when he took super-G bronze in 2014, as the oldest Alpine medalist ever.

FULL RESULTS

All three Americans in the field – Bryce Bennett, Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Travis Ganong – finished inside the top-20. Cochran-Siegle led the trio with a 14th-place finish.

Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the world's top-ranked downhill skier and favorite going into the race, finished fifth. He and girlfriend Mikaela Shiffrin both came away from a busy Monday on the slope without hardware after Shiffrin crashed out of the women's giant slalom during her first run.

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