Swiss racer Franjo von Allmen wins men’s downhill, first gold medal of Milan Cortina Games
BORMIO, Italy (AP) — Swiss runner Franjo von Allmen won the first gold medal in the Milan Cortina Games by winning the downhill on Saturday. This is her first Olympic crown in her very first Olympic race.
Not so long ago, we didn’t know if there would still be “firsts” for him in ski racing. As a teenager, and after the death of his father, von Allmen had no money to run – until a crowdfunding project helped him.
Now the 24-year-old is the king of the downhill.
On a perfect day in Bormio, von Allmen completed the difficult Stelvio course in 1 minute 51.61 seconds to retain the Olympic downhill title in the Swiss family. His time was enough to hold off the charge of Italian Giovanni Franzoni, who finished 0.20 seconds behind to take the silver medal. Franzoni’s teammate Dominik Paris, 36, rode a fast race to take bronze and knock Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt off the podium.
“I had a lot of fun skiing today,” von Allmen said.
His skiing career was almost derailed at 17. Through crowdfunding, he raised funds and qualified for the national C team. He showed his immense potential by winning three silver medals, including one in downhill, at the 2022 World Junior Championships in Canada.
This particular moment, however, was not something he wanted to revisit after the race.
“For me, this chapter is closed,” he said through a translator. “I prefer to focus on what is yet to come and what is happening now.”
Aksel Lund Svindal, the 2018 Norwegian Olympic downhill champion, considered von Allmen a favorite. Svindal was impressed by the young rider’s performance in a downhill victory in Switzerland before the Games.
“This is the skiing of someone who is really fit, so I’m not surprised,” Svindal said from Cortina, where he coaches Lindsey Vonn. “Very good skiing, obviously.”
The Swiss skier sometimes goes unnoticed by his compatriot Odermatt, who has won four consecutive titles in the overall World Cup rankings. They are fast friends and friendly rivals. They share information about classes but also hold back a bit. It turns out von Allmen had the best inside track on this demanding hill.
“I had a good feeling,” Odermatt said. “But it just wasn’t fast enough.”
It’s been quite a journey for von Allmen, who won the downhill at the world championships in Austria last winter. It uses the same ski technician that Swiss racer Beat Feuz relied on to win the downhill at the 2022 Beijing Games before retiring.
“It feels like a movie,” von Allmen said. “How better can you imagine the Olympics than starting with a gold medal? Amazing. It’s hard to describe it in words.”
House Favorites
The stands were filled with supporters waving flags. Some of the biggest cheers were reserved for Italians Franzoni and Paris, who faced off consecutively.
This is an exceptional season for Franzoni, 24, from Manerba del Garda, located around 200 kilometers south of Bormio. More precisely, it was a escape approximately 22 days. He won a World Cup super-G in Wengen, Switzerland, on January 16 and followed that up with a downhill victory in Kitzbuhel, Austria, the following week.
Sharing a podium with Paris, well, that’s something Franzoni expressed in reality. He mentioned in Paris in December how nice it would be to be on the same podium – the veteran and the mentor. It was precisely at the Olympic Games.
“I don’t know if he will continue racing next year but this is the biggest milestone to share,” Franzoni said. “He gives me a lot of advice during this season. He’s such a strong guy, a legend, and it’s an honor for me to be part of this team.”
Paris knows this course well having won seven World Cup races there. Shortly after receiving his medal, he looked up at the hill.
“It’s a beautiful and difficult mountain,” said Paris, originally from Val d’Ultimo.
It was Paris’ first Olympic medal in its fifth Winter Games. He now becomes a bronze medalist in addition to being the singer of a heavy metal band called “Rise of Voltage”.
“I am, for sure, a better skier,” cracked Paris. “But if you listen to metal, I’m not that bad.”
Kyle Negomir, the 27th runner to take the course, found a fast line and moved up to 10th place to finish as the top American.
“My goal was to achieve something that would allow me to stand at the finish and say I had no regrets,” Negomir said.
___
AP Sports writers Andrew Dampf in Cortina and James Ellingworth in Milan contributed.
___
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing and AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
