Gold medal confirms Janka's potential for greatness

Prior to Tuesday’s giant slalom (GS) event at the 2010 Games, Carlo Janka had called it a race like any other.

But after a combined and winning time of 2 minutes and 37.83 seconds, the young Swiss – known as the “Iceman” for his cool approach to the slopes and press – wasn’t quite so indifferent.

"It is fantastic to be an Olympic champion. I am it at 23 years. It is just amazing," Janka, from canton Grisons, said.

Janka, who also won the GS at last year’s World Championships in Val d’Isere, lead the field by two hundredths of the second after a first leg – during which American favourite Bode Miller was eliminated – and therefore had to wait until last before tackling the second phase.

"There were few nerves going down last but really I was quite confident," he said.

As the Swiss gathered his thoughts at the top of the hill, outsider Kjetil Jansrud, eight tenths behind the Swiss, produced a blistering run to snatch the lead.

Even the double-medal winning Norwegian, Aksel Lund Svindal, couldn’t match his compatriot though he was second on the podium prior to Janka.

But neither effort proved enough.

There’s something of the former great slalom specialist, Ingemar Stenmark about Janka, and on a track that was starting to cut up under the skis of previous competitors, Janka illustrated the same economy of movement as the Swede to cross the line nearly four tenths of a second ahead of Jansrud and pushing Svindal down to the bronze.

A few head nods and a brief clenching of fists marked his celebration of victory. "It was perfect for me, the snow was hard but not icy, good grip, perfect conditions,” he said after becoming the first Swiss to win the GS for 26 years.

"You must always take a lot of risks. I made no big mistakes from top to finish and that was key,” he added.

The same couldn’t be said of Didier Cuche, whose disastrous 21^st place during the first run contained several errors and left him more than a second off the pace.

However, he later revealed a painful fall in training had hampered his challenge.

Despite a laudable second leg (placing fourth), the Neuchâtel native ended up 14^th overall; a disappointing end to what will probably be Cuche’s final Games.

Meanwhile Switzerland’s greatest rivals, the Austrians, continued their appalling alpine skiing campaign (just two medals so far) by failing to reach the GS podium – their slalom experts finished agonizingly in fourth, fifth and sixth positions.

Janka’s medal makes it six golds and two bronzes for Switzerland at the 2010 Olympics, the country's most successful winter Games ever.

The final Olympic alpine skiing event, the slalom, is scheduled on Saturday (first run 7pm CET) with Silvan Zurbriggen the major Swiss hope for a podium place.