Franjo Von Allmen stuns on the downhill to become first Olympic Champion of Milano Cortina

The Story of the Downhill

There’s nothing like the opening day of an OIympics. The men brought things from the off in the downhill, the iconic Stelvio course the setting for pace and flight in the pursuit of glory. Daniel Hemetsberger proved that from the off, the Austrian up first and defying a training run crash to set the pace among the first five.

It then became the turn of the Swiss racers. First up came Alexis Monney, defying the bounce to set the time to beat. But Marco and Franjo were to come next. The 2022 Giant Slalom champion was a picture of relief on crossing the line, 0.05s ahead of Monney as the season leader took momentary charge.

But Franjo von Allmen did something stunning from the eighth run. A champion on the downhill a week earlier in Crans Montana, he took World Cup form into these Games and didn’t drop a beat. With his teammates in his sights, von Allmen passed the test in sector after sector, recording the best time in four of them at the time of crossing the line. It meant that Odermatt’s lead was temporary, as a logic-defying 1:51.61 blew aside that advantage, leaving a 0.70s difference between the Swiss season leaders.

It was soon the turn of the home Italians, for whom much was expected. Giovanni Franzoni was up first, aiming to build on a superb name-making season that already has seen him add World Cup victories to his collection. He brought the pace in the finale, cutting the lead of von Allmen to 0.20s to move into temporary silver.

And it wasn’t just for the time being either. Dominik Paris, a man who has made this course his own over the years aimed to do so once again. On a course that has seen him pick up seven World Cup titles over the years, Paris burst out of the blocks but lost time towards the end, ultimately crossing in third as Italy took their positions in home medal territory.