By: P.T., STA
Slovenia’s Žan Kranjec won silver in the Olympic men’s giant slalom on Sunday, in what is his first Olympic medal and the sixth for Slovenia at the Beijing Olympics. Swiss Marco Odermatt won gold 19 hundredths of a second ahead of Kranjec, with France’s Mathieu Faivre finishing third.
After placing 8th in the first run, Kranjec, 29, put on a superb second run to improve on his 4th place from the Pyeongchang Olympics four years ago.
He has won Slovenia the tenth Olympic medal in Alpine skiing, or the eight under Slovenia’s flag.
The first Slovenian to win a medal at winter Olympics was Jure Franko in 1984 when he placed second in giant slalom at the Olympics in Sarajevo, competing for Yugoslavia.
Kranjec was the only Slovenian to compete in today’s race, and will also compete in the slalom and parallel mixed team events.
The 29-year-old Slovenian placed 6th at last year’s World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo while managing to clinch eight World Cup podium results in his career, of which two golds. Kranjec placed third in this year’s World Cup giant slalom season opener in Austria’s Soelden, his only World Cup podium result this season.