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Olympic First as Gisin and Maze Share Gold in Women's Downhill

Russia's Maria Bedareva competing in the finals of the women's downhill. Anton Denisov

Switzerland's Dominique Gisin and Slovenia's Tina Maze shared the spoils in a dramatic women's downhill final that saw both skiers complete the course in exactly the same time.

Maze set the fastest pace in the first sector of the race, but a mistake saw her lose time in the latter stages, crossing the line in a time of 1:41.57 — the same as Gisin.

This is the first time that a gold medal has been shared in Olympic alpine-skiing competition, and meant that no silver medal was awarded. Laura Gut of Switzerland took bronze in a time of 1:41.67.

"There was a lot of nerves, a lot of sweat, lot of emotions. It was lonely there in the leader's box. It's incredible, how else can I say it. It's a big honor to share the gold with Tina, she's an amazing woman. This is awesome," Gisin told the BBC after the race.

In more distressing scenes, the competition was halted for several minutes while Monaco's Alexandra Coletti received medical treatment following a bad crash. Coletti was eventually stretchered off the course, with no immediate update on her condition available.

Germany's Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who took gold in the women's super-combined event on Monday — had been tipped to do well in the downhill, but finished in 13th place. The 29-year old had been chasing a historic fourth Olympic gold, which would have made her one of most successful alpine-skiers of all time along with Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt and Croatia's Janica Kostelic.

Defending champion Lindsey Vonn and Liechtenstein's much-fancied Tina Weirather both had to pull out through injury.

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