SAALBACH, Austria (Reuters) -Switzerland’s dominance at the Alpine World Ski Championships continued on Wednesday when they won all three medals in the men’s team combined event, with Franjo von Allmen claiming his second gold in Saalbach alongside Loic Meillard.
Von Allmen, who took gold in Sunday’s downhill, was second best in the opening speed race, but Meillard was strongest on the slalom, and they overcame the Swiss 2 team of Alexis Monney and Tanguy Nef by 0.27 seconds overall.
The Swiss 4 pairing of Stefan Rogentin and Marc Rochat completed the clean sweep by taking the bronze medal, with the U.S. team of Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Benjamin Ritchie just missing the podium in fourth.
“Incredibly cool, the performance of the whole Swiss team. This is something for the history books,” Von Allmen said.
“I’m still happy with a top 10 result in my second World Cup season. That’s why what’s going on here is beyond words for me.”
This was the first time the team combined, with each nation allowed to enter up to four pairs, was held at a world championships, with Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson of the U.S. winning the women’s race on Monday.
The event will also feature at next year’s Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The Swiss began strongly with Monney, who took bronze in the downhill, setting the fastest time while Von Allmen recovered from losing half a second after a mistake in the middle sector to finish two hundredths of a second behind.
Switzerland had all four teams in the top 10 after the downhill but the Italian pairing of Dominik Paris and Alex Vinatzer held third place.
The downhill had been interrupted twice due to lack of visibility, as a change in the weather brought cloud and fog to the course, but conditions improved before the slalom run.
The Swiss 4 team, eighth after the first run, took the lead and when the Italians failed to finish their compatriots finished off the job in style with Meillard, winning his fourth medal, proving too strong for Nef in the slalom.
“It’s crazy, to have three Swiss teams on the podium is incredible,” Meillard said.
“I don’t know what’s going on in this team, everyone is crazy.”
The Swiss managed to scoop up all three medals even without three times overall World Cup champion Marco Odermatt.
Odermatt, who won last Friday’s super-G to add to his gold medals in downhill and giant slalom at the 2023 world championships, decided to focus on Friday’s giant slalom.
Switzerland have now won six of the eight medals in the men’s events at Saalbach, and have an overall haul of eight medals, including a silver in the women’s team combined.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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