Suter confirms Swiss dominance with Olympic downhill gold

Corinne Suter confirmed Switzerland's alpine skiing dominance at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday when she streaked to victory in the women's downhill for the country's fourth gold in the mountains.

The 27-year-old world champion clocked 1min 31.87sec down the 2.7km-long "Rock" course in Yanqing, finishing 0.16sec ahead of defending champion Sofia Goggia of Italy, whose silver capped a remarkable return to form after she injured her knee in a crash last month.

A second Italian, Nadia Delago, claimed bronze, 0.57sec adrift of Suter.

"I'm super happy with my run," said Suter. "In the finish I wasn't sure if it was good or not because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side.

"It's the biggest dream of my life."

Goggia had no complaints with her silver, saying: "It's an unbelievable medal because of the condition of the last 20 days.

"I'm glad I gave everything to be here today, I'm glad and grateful that I could achieve another medal."

Suter's win followed Swiss gold-medal showings by Lara Gut-Behrami in the women's super-G, while Beat Feuz won the men's downhill at the start of the Games and Marco Odermatt took the men's giant slalom.

Gut-Behrami, who has also won giant slalom bronze in these Games, had complained of fatigue coming into the downhill and it showed as she finished 2.16sec off the pace.

"That's sport," said Gut-Behrami, adding that she was "happy" with her Olympics. "It doesn't take much to be slow. I was a little bit too hard on my skis.

"I tried to improve my speed, but it didn't happen."

She said Suter "has always been consistent and has worked so hard.

"Since the world championships in Are in 2019 she has found the right way: great speed and aggression, and great feelings. And she is getting medals at big events."

After failing to finish in her favoured events of the slalom and giant slalom, American Mikaela Shiffrin enjoyed a rare outing in the ultimate speed event, with one eye on Thursday's alpine combined, which incorporates a downhill followed by a slalom.