Brilliant Svindal delivers Norway's first downhill gold

Aksel Lund Svindal threw his battered body down the Jeongseon slope in thrilling style to cap a brilliant career with Norway's first Olympic downhill gold medal on Thursday, becoming the oldest Alpine skiing champion in the history of the Games.

The 35-year-old's team mate Kjetil Jansrud celebrated with Svindal as the backrunners continued to come down the course after taking silver for a Norwegian 1-2, while world champion Beat Feuz took bronze for Switzerland.

Norwegians, including Svindal in 2010 and Jansrud in 2014, have finished on the podium in five of the last six Olympic downhills but none had previously claimed the biggest prize in Alpine speed racing.

A year after undergoing the latest in a succession of operations on his beaten body, though, Svindal stormed down the bottom half of the Jeongseon piste to erase the anomaly in one minute, 40.25 seconds.

Jansrud's loss of control on the final jump probably cost him the gold as he finished 0.12 seconds behind his team mate in 1:40.37 with Feuz third in 1:40.43.

After nearly a week of high winds wreaking havoc with the Alpine skiing schedule, the blue riband event of the programme finally got underway four days late in...