YANQING, China, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Swiss giant slalom gold medalist Marco Odermatt credited the risky decision to change his skis, despite leading after his first run in Sunday’s race, to his country’s third gold medal in alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics.

Odermatt was in the lead after the first moto in difficult conditions on the course nicknamed “The Ice River”, with heavy snow reducing visibility to a minimum and making life difficult for the whole field.

He finished his second run with a combined time of 2:09:35, putting him 0.19 seconds ahead of runner-up Zan Kranjec of Slovenia, with France’s Mathieu Faivre taking bronze.

“We changed the ski and bindings for the second run because I didn’t feel so good on my feet after the first run,” Odermatt said. “It took courage to do it after leading the Olympic race, but it was definitely the right decision.

“These 19 hundredths (of a second) is not a lot. It’s certainly because I changed skis.”

The Swiss has been the dominant force in giant slalom at the World Cup this season, winning four of the five races on the circuit and finishing second in the fifth. He also tops the overall World Cup standings.

Odermatt pushed hard to stay ahead of Kranjec, who was fastest in moto two. The Swiss finished 59 hundredths of a second slower than Kranjec’s second effort but was still fast enough to win the gold medal.

“It’s always a bit risky in ski racing to want to fight for medals. So many things can happen, Odermatt said. “It was a difficult day, with the conditions, with such a long wait between the two races.

“I really risked everything in the second run because I didn’t just want the medal, I wanted the gold medal. It’s difficult because you can lose everything but today it paid off.”

Odermatt’s effort earned Switzerland its third alpine skiing gold medal of the Games, after Beat Feuz took victory in the men’s downhill and Lara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G.

“It’s hard to say what the secret is,” Odermatt added. “It was a very, very difficult race. Nobody had a very good feeling. It was just about fighting and pushing until the very last gate and it was still the same on the second lap.

“You had to ski more or less clean and push but it was really hard with the visibility, with the snowfall.

“I won the medal today but there are so many things between (you) and a medal, there are so many shadows behind the medal, on the other side.”

Reporting by Simon Jennings; edited by Clare Fallon

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