Defago rolls back time to take Olympic downhill gold

Not since the great Pirmin Zurbriggen took gold in the men’s downhill in Calgary 22 years ago, has Switzerland been on top of the world in this, the most prestigious of all events on the Olympic schedule.

But at 32 years and 136 days old, Didier Defago edged out Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal on Monday by just 0.07 seconds on the Cypress Mountain piste with American Bode Miller a further 0.02 seconds off the pace.

"I really wanted to go back home with a medal. After three Olympics and a lot of championships, I think my experience made the difference," said Défago, now the oldest ever winner of the event.

"I'm very happy. It was a crazy run, not very easy because it was very different from the training," he said.

Last week a bout of warm weather spawned a slush-infested piste and foggy conditions, forcing officials to postpone Saturday’s race until Monday.

Once underway, the event proved to be the closest in history. With the number eight starting bib, American Bode Miller threw down the ski gauntlet by negotiating the upper sections to perfection and taking the lead.

However, a slight mistake further down when the legs were burning may have cost Miller his dream to finally win an Olympic downhill gold; Svindal made no such error to snatch an advantage by almost the slenderest of margins.

Incredibly Défago was even better, matching Miller and Svindal from the start before edging away on the final stretches.

One minute and 54.31 seconds read the clock and the Swiss flopped back against the barrier with ski poles aloft in glee.

With pre-race favourite, Didier Cuche and Swiss talent Carlo Janka to come however, the gold medal was still to be banked.

The latter failed to make an impression, but for most of Cuche's run, it looked like it was going to be a double podium finish for the Swiss as the 35-year-old remained right in touch with the leading split times on the upper to mid-sections.

But by the finish the man from Neuchâtel had inexplicably squandered time to find himself in a disappointing sixth place.

Cuche is still wondering what went wrong. "It was really close and I can't really understand why I was slow on the finish part,” he said.

“Normally, I'm a good finisher. But when I saw the crowd really quiet down here, I knew that was not like I wanted. I'm going to enjoy the night with Didier. He deserved it and it's good for the Swiss nation," said Cuche.

For 22-year-old “Iceman” Janka, who finished 11^th, there will be other Olympics medals and Games; remaining member of the Swiss quartet, Ambrosi Hoffman was 23^rd.

Switzerland has now acquired three gold medals, more than any other country to date during the Vancouver Olympiad.

Following Défago’s victory, Dario Cologna won the 15 kilometre cross-country skiing event more than 24 seconds ahead of Italy’s Pietro Piller Cottrer with Czech Lukas Bauer in third place.

Simon Ammann took the normal hill ski jumping event on Saturday.