French skier Clement Noel put down a blistering second run to win the slalom at the Beijing Olympics by a large margin on Wednesday.
Noel moved up from sixth following the first leg to beat first-run leader Johannes Strolz of Austria by 0.61 seconds after posting the fastest second run.
World champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag of Norway held his position and picked up the bronze, finishing 0.70 behind.
Noel finished fourth in the slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Strolz also won the gold medal in the combined last week.
All nine of Noel’s World Cup wins have come in slalom, including the opening race this season on home snow in Val d’Isere.
Quickly maneuvering his 6-foot-3 (1.91-meter) frame around the blue and red gates, Noel accelerated on the steep finishing pitch where most of the other skiers were more cautious.
The middle section of the Ice River course presented a challenge with a series of bumps, but Noel — who was wearing a shiny gold-colored helmet — used his long legs as shock absorbers to remain smooth.
When he crossed the line, the 24-year-old Noel yelled and let out a series of fist pumps even though there were still five racers to go.
Henrik Kristoffersen was the only skier who came close to Noel’s time at the final checkpoint, trailing by just 0.03, but the Norwegian veteran then lost his groove and finished fourth, 0.79 behind.
For the first run, the temperature at the top of the hill was minus 18.5 degrees Celsius (minus 1 degree Fahrenheit). The freezing conditions made for an icy and slippery slope that caused 34 of the 88 competitors not to finish the opening leg.
It was the final individual event for men in Alpine skiing. Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin is aiming for her first medal of the Beijing Games in the women’s combined on Thursday. The team event on Saturday concludes the program.
