Gold: Marcel Hirscher (Austria)
Silver: Alexis Pinturault (France)
Bronze: Victor Muffat-Jeandet (France)
Marcel Hirscher will never again be called the “greatest Alpine skier without an Olympic gold medal.”
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The Austrian won the men’s combined title Tuesday in PyeongChang. He ranked 12th after the first run of the event, but made up a 1.32 second deficit in the second run.
France’s Alexis Pinturault claimed the silver medal, while fellow Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet earned the bronze medal.
Hirscher has won Alpine skiing’s most prestigious annual honor—the overall World Cup title—for a record six consecutive seasons. But his only Olympic medal entering the 2018 Winter Games was a slalom silver in 2014.
Hirscher, 28, downplayed the significance of an Olympic gold medal in the lead-up to PyeongChang Games, saying he would rather win another overall World Cup title than an Olympic title. But his joy was evident when he raised both hands in triumph after crossing the finish line.
Hirscher is far from finished in PyeongChang. He will be a favorite in Saturday’s giant slalom and next Wednesday’s slalom.
Ted Ligety, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in the event, was the top American in fifth. Fellow American Bryce Bennett was 17th.
Germany’s Thomas Dressen, who clocked the fastest time in the first run of men’s combined, finished ninth.
Men’s combined was the first Alpine skiing event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, after Saturday’s men’s downhill and Sunday’s women’s giant were both postponed due to wind.
The next Alpine skiing event is the women’s slalom on Tuesday, when Mikaela Shiffrin is expected to make her 2018 Olympic debut. She is hoping to become the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the event.