In difficult conditions, he came down seventh fastest in the final heat and won six tenths ahead of the Italian Filippo Della Vite, who won nine hundredths.
– Incredibly good in gold. It’s the best I’ve ever done in giant slalom. On the first lap, I had starting number 1 and was able to exploit that position. In the final I kept a good pace and it was fantastic to get the win. It was amazing fun, Olsen said in a statement to NTB.
With this triumph, he secured a place in the final of the giant slalom World Cup in Courchevel/Méribel next week.
The bronze medal went to Austrian Lukas Passrugger, who was the first starter in the final after a 30th place finish in the first round. He climbs onto the podium when, with a margin of 73 hundredths, he sets the fastest lap time.
The medal thus narrowly escaped Norway’s Oscar Zimmer, third after the first round. The ninth fastest lap in the Final sent him back to fourth place, 12 hundredths behind Passrugger.
The Norwegians had been modest in their standings so far in the Junior WC Alpine at Panorama, but on the penultimate day of the championship it was the turn of the technicians, and the Norwegians immediately set the standard.
The superb
With the starting number 1, Olsen drove until a time when no one was close to chastising. After the first round, there were three Norwegians in the top four. The Italian Della Vite in 2nd place is the only one to have shared them, but he is 0.69 seconds behind the leader.
Zimmer was third and Christian Oliveira Søvik fourth. Søvik struggled in the final and finished in 10th place after setting the 16th fastest lap time.
Oscar Andreas Sandvik chased in the final lap after dropping to a shared 9th place from a late starting number (31) on lap one. Eirik Hystad Solberg finished in 14th place. After the first round he was the fifth best Norwegian in 12th place.
Croatian victory
It didn’t go so well in the women’s slalom. Pernille Dyrstad Lydersen in 23rd place was the only Norwegian to qualify as Croatian Zrinka Ljutic took a superior victory.
Ljutic won 84 hundredths ahead of Germany’s Emma Aicher, while bronze went to Sweden’s Moa Boström Mussener.
Anine Thoresen crashed out on the last lap after 28th in the lead, while Cathinka Lunder and Carmen Sofie Nielssen crashed out on the opening lap.
Wednesday is slalom for the men and giant slalom for the women.
