Svindal wins Olympic downhill to become oldest Alpine champ

JEONGSEON, South Korea — As he approached his 35th birthday, Aksel Lund Svindal didn’t always feel like he would make Olympic history as the oldest Alpine gold medalist.

His body felt the strain of too many high-speed crashes and seasonending surgeries, and it wouldn’t let him train at the high intensity he likes.

Fast forward two months from December, and no one was quicker on the downhill course at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

“I am old,” said the tough Norwegian, confirming this would be his last Olympics. “So I guess this is the beginning of the end somehow.”

He certainly made his last chance count on Thursday, finally getting the only downhill honor missing from an impressive career.

Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal skis during the men’s downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea.

Svindal finished 0.12 seconds faster than teammate and close friend Kjetil Jansrud, making up lost time on a masterful ski on the bottom half of the 1 4/5-mile (2.9-kilometer) course.

Beat Feuz of Switzerland took bronze. The world champion — and the standout racer of the classic World Cup downhills in January — was 0.18 behind Svindal’s winning time of 1 minute, Alessandro Trovati / AP

40.25 seconds. The new year brought new hope for Svindal that his body would hold up for the Olympics.

“I was struggling in the beginning of the season,” he said, acknowledging the impact of landing four jumps Thursday that made him creak a little. “Definitely the jumps were longer today, I felt that, but it’s working better than I feared in December.”

Even getting to South Korea was a little voyage into the unknown for Svindal, who ended his past two seasons in January for surgery on his knees.

Both were a direct result of a fearsome crash in Kitzbuehel, Austria, in January 2016.

“This is basically the first year I’ve skied in February for four years or something like that,” Svindal said. “I’ve been in the hospital every other year.”

The 2016 crash ensured he missed the Olympic test event in South Korea two years ago, which Jansrud won.

The postponement of Sunday’s scheduled downhill due to fierce winds bought valuable time and an extra look at the course in the opening part of the combined event on Tuesday. In that race, Svindal was faster than Jansrud in the downhill for the first time.