Strolz follows in dad's Olympic footsteps

YANQING • Austria's Johannes Strolz bounced back from being dropped from the national team - even working as a traffic policeman for a time - to emulate his father in winning Olympic alpine combined gold at Beijing 2022 yesterday.

Fourth after the opening downhill, Strolz - using teammate and super-G gold medallist Matthias Mayer's skis - produced the fastest slalom run to clock a combined time of 2min 31.43sec and top the podium, just as his father Hubert did at the 1988 Calgary Games.

Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde added silver to his super-G bronze in the Xiaohaituo mountains in Yanqing, finishing 0.59sec behind the winner, with Canada's James Crawford 0.68sec adrift to take bronze, a just reward after he finished fourth in the downhill and sixth in the super-G.

Strolz, who almost quit the sport a year ago after losing his place in the national team, worked as a policeman in a small town in Austria for months last summer, driving a patrol car and controlling traffic to earn money.

The 29-year-old stayed on the ski circuit without official support, preparing his own skis and being his own "serviceman".

Strolz was eventually invited to train with the German alpine team and punched his ticket to the Olympics with a stunning slalom victory at a World Cup race in Adelboden in Switzerland last month - his first in nine years of racing.

"It means the world to me because I was not on the team any more last summer, but I made it back into the team and got the full support again," he said. "Especially with the history of my father, it means so much to me.

"When I think about it, all the pictures and my father's gold medal, it's hard for me not to cry. It's just a dream coming true...

"I just spoke to my father. He is happy for me and proud of me.

"It's just an unbelievable moment for all of us in my family."

Austria men's head coach Andreas Puelacher said Strolz's gold was "amazing", adding that he had "never imagined it".

Another medallist with less illustrious family history at the Winter Games is Crawford. The 24-year-old is not sure if it was aerodynamics or "juju", but he believes shaving off his moustache might have helped bury a family history of narrow podium misses.

Older sister Candace Crawford finished ninth in the mixed team parallel at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. His aunt Judy Crawford Rawley was fourth in the slalom at the 1972 Olympics.

"She always told me nobody remembers fourth place," he said.

"It's kind of cut-throat but it's true at the Olympic Games, a medal is everything...

"I honestly shaved it because I felt it wasn't getting me on the podium. It was a little bit of a juju thing. Maybe it was the reason, maybe not. I definitely look a lot younger!"

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS