Razzoli joins Tomba in Olympic glory (Roundup)

By David Hein Feb 28, 2010, 0:32 GMT

Whistler, Canada - Guiliano Razzoli captured his Italy's first men's alpine gold medal since Alberto Tomba 18 years ago by winning Saturday's slalom while Austria finished their worst ever Olympics with zero men's medals.

With Tomba in the finish area in Whistler, Razzoli continued his strong slalom season by racing down the lower Dave Murray course in a combined time of 1 minute 39.32 seconds for his first Olympic medal.

Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished 0.16 seconds behind Razzoli to add slalom silver to his super combined silver earlier at these Games and the combined silver from 2006.

And Andre Myhrer of Sweden jumped from 10th in the first run to the bronze medal, 0.44 seconds slower than Razzoli.

'It's a dream because I was on this medal for a long time and I worked a long time, training a lot, for this day. Now I'm here with a gold medal, it's incredible,' said Razzoli, who claimed Italy's last alpine victory since Tomba won the giant slalom at Albertville 1992.

'It's an amazing day, he won a gold medal, it's great,' said Tomba, who won three Olympic golds and two silvers.

'He lives close to my house, just 50 miles from Bologna. I saw him in Nakiska (ski area near Calgary) four or five days ago, he was in great shape. I told him, 'Quiet, just go, keep your mind'.'

Razzoli, 25, had registered just four World Cup podium finishes coming into the Olympics. But his only victory came in January 2010 in Zagreb and he also finished third in the Kitzbuehel slalom this season.

'I am very well aware that the expectations back home were very high. But I tried not to think about that and just focus on my race,' said Razzoli.

'But I know this is very important for my team, and my nation.'

After years of injury problems, Kostelic was very happy to have won a medal.

'Since I have been through a lot of hospitals and seen a lot of things, though it may sound funny, I don't care what colour the medal is as long as I am healthy,' said the 30-year-old Kostelic.

'Realistically speaking I had two chances at a medal, super combined and slalom, and I took them both.'

Myhrer meanwhile claimed Sweden's first men's alpine medal since Lars-Boerje Eriksson took bronze in the super-g at Calgary 1988.

'It's a huge goal for me, it's been all my life to take an Olympic medal and I have one and it's an amazing feeling,' said Myhrer.

'I hope also I can encourage more guys to ski slalom. It's been a while since we took a medal, so I'm really happy about that,' said Myhrer.

Austria meanwhile finished off the podium for the fifth men's race in Whistler as defending Olympic slalom champion and 2005 slalom world champion Benjamin Raich took fourth place - five-hundredths of a second behind Myhrer.

And fellow Austrians Marcel Hirscher and Reinfried Herbst took fifth and 12th place, respectively.

The alpine super powers Austria had never failed to win a men's medal at an Olympics in which they participated.

The Austrian Skiing Federation president Peter Schroecksnadel fended off criticism that the team's system is in shambles.

'What can you do? So many fourth placed finishes,' said Schröcksnadel, who watched Austria also finish fourth, fifth and sixth in the giant slalom, fourth in the downhill and sixth in the super combined.

'When somebody says that the system is over with, that is idiocy. Because nothing is the matter in the system with a fourth place. Things just didn't work out for the men.'

Bode Miller of the United States straddled a gate at the very top of the course and skied out, ending the possibility of becoming the first skier to win a medal in all five Olympic alpine disciplines.