Winter Olympics 2022 - Mikaela Shiffrin finishes ninth in super-G as Lara Gut-Behrami claims gold for Switzerland

Updated 11/02/2022 at 11:56 GMT

Lara Gut-Behrami claimed a first Olympic gold medal for her country in the women's super-G - 34 years after Switzerland won Olympic silver - with a "spectacular ski." The Swiss also took bronze with Michelle Gisin while Austria’s Mirjam Puchner took silver. America's Mikaela Shiffrin was happy to have completed the course after her two DNFs at the Games so far, but could only finish ninth.

‘Just perfect!’ - Gut-Behrami lays down ‘stunning run’ to claim super-G gold

Switzerland won their first women’s Olympic super-G with a “spectacular” ski from Lara Gut-Behrami in Beijing.

The Swiss also took bronze with Michelle Gisin 0.30 seconds back, while Austria’s Mirjam Puchner took silver 0.22 seconds off the leading pace.

Ester Ledecka finished a credible fifth in her bid to retain the title, and double up once again on historic snowboard and skiing gold medals - but she will have one more opportunity to do that when she goes in the downhill.

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The Czech has already secured what was a relatively straightforward victory in snowboarding's parallel giant slalom. In PyeongChang 2018, she became the first Winter Olympian to win golds with two different pieces of equipment at the same Games - and she showed that she has the ability to achieve the same feat later in the Games.

USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin completed the course following her two DNFs in previous events in Beijing, but was unable to trouble the top three in the super-G, finishing in ninth at 0.79 seconds back.

Gut-Behrami delivered a light, smooth run that Eurosport commentator Nick Fellows called “spectacular” to claim gold and become the first female skier to win the World Championship and the Olympic super-G back-to-back.

It is the 30-year-old’s first Olympic gold following two fourth-place finishes in a row in Olympic super-G events.

Her gold adds to her two bronze medals from the Olympics, which includes one from Monday’s giant slalom.

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“It was an intense day,” the Swiss skier said.

“I’ve been fourth two times at the Olympics. After my run, I was not sure it would be enough because it was really easy to ski and I thought maybe I could have pushed a little more.

“I was more nervous at the finish than I was at the top."

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Gut-Behrami was forced to go into lockdown after testing positive for Covid-19 mid-season.

“I did not have an easy winter, there were a lot of ups and downs,” she added.

“It is hard for me to continue with full energy because I have not had so many races. But it is ok, I got a gold so I am just going to try and get in shape and ski even faster.”