KRASNAYA POLYANA — Alpine skiing produced another major surprise at the Sochi Olympics on Friday as Swiss outsider Sandro Viletta won the men's super combined.
Following on from Matthias Mayer's gold medal in the downhill Sunday, it was the second men's event in a row to have a winner who had never claimed even a World Cup podium in the discipline.
Viletta, who had been 14th after the opening downhill stage of Friday's super combined, laid down the second-fastest slalom run of the day to snatch gold, 0.34 seconds ahead of Croatian slalom specialist Ivica Kostelic.
The bronze medal went to Christof Innerhofer of Italy, 0.13 seconds further back, his second medal of the Sochi Games after silver in the downhill. Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud, the leader after the downhill, slipped to fourth in the final standings, 1.06 seconds off Viletta's total time.
One of the most impressive performances came from little-known Slovakian Adam Zampa, who narrowly missed out on a medal after posting the best slalom run of the day to rise from 27th to fifth in the standings.
There was major disappointment for two big names from the United States, Bode Miller and Ted Ligety.
Miller was solid but unspectacular in sixth, while Ligety, the 2006 champion in the old combined event, had been expected to fight for a medal but made errors in both his downhill and slalom, finishing 12th.
The snow at Rosa Khutor was slow and slushy as the race took place amid warm temperatures in the mountains above Sochi.
