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Strolz emulates father 34 years on to take alpine combined gold medal

Beijing, Feb 10 (EFE).- Austria’s Johannes Strolz made Olympic history after winning gold in the men’s combined alpine skiing at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games on Thursday, emulating his father’s victory in the same discipline in Calgary 34 years earlier.

The Strolz’s thus became the only father-son duo to win Olympic medals in the same discipline.

For 29-year-old Johannes, who had only one World Cup victory to his name prior to Beijing, it is a remarkable turnaround after a poor run of form saw him booted off the Austrian national team prior to the current season.

“It means the world to me because I was not on the team any more last summer, and made it back into the team, got the full support again,” Strolz said after his final run which saw him place ahead of Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who claimed the silver, and Canadian James Crawford, who took the bronze.

“Especially with the history of my father, it means so much to me,” Strolz added.

“First of all I have to thank my whole family. They always believed in me, and now it’s a dream coming true, making the same gold medal like (sic) my father did.” EFE

epa-arh/ks/jot

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