Swiss skiers Franjo von Allmen and Tanguy Nef clinched the gold medal in the team combined event during its debut at the Milano-Cortina Games. Despite being in fourth place after von Allmen’s downhill run, Nef excelled on a challenging slalom course, propelling the Swiss-2 team to victory with a combined time of 2 minutes, 44.04 seconds. Sharing the silver medal were the Swiss-1 team of Marco Odermatt and Loic Meillard and the Austrian-1 team of Vincent Kriechmayr and Manuel Feller, both finishing 0.99 seconds behind. No bronze medal was awarded due to the tie for silver.
The team combined competition features one racer tackling a downhill course and another navigating a slalom run, with their times combined to determine the final standings. Von Allmen, who had previously secured gold at the world championships alongside Meillard, repeated his success with Nef this time. Nef’s impressive performance on a challenging course helped him make up a 0.42-second deficit, leading to a joyous celebration with von Allmen at the finish line.
Giovanni Franzoni, the downhill silver medalist, briefly had Italy-1 in the lead after the first run, but Alex Vinatzer’s final run dropped them to sixth place. The Swiss team had a remarkable sweep of gold, silver, and bronze in the men’s team combined event at the previous world championships.
Looking ahead, the women’s team combined event on Tuesday will feature Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson, who previously triumphed in the event at the world championships. Johnson, the reigning Olympic downhill champion, secured her victory on Sunday.
