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Swiss world champion Franjo von Allmen has claimed the first gold medal at the 2026 Cortina Olympics in Milan, beating Italian favorite and Bormio specialist Dominik Paris in the men’s downhill by fifty hundredths of a second.
The 24-year-old skier, competing in his first Olympics, held the top of the podium for most of the final at the Stelvio Ski Center in Bormio on Saturday morning. He finished his run in 1:51.61 and reached top speeds of 83.77 mph in the final stretch of his run.
The host nation picked up two medals to round out the podium.
Italian skier Giovanni Franzoni, 24, won a silver medal at his first Winter Olympics, finishing two-tenths of a second behind von Allmen. Paris, who has won the world championship six times in Bormio, won a bronze medal in what is his fifth Olympics.
The Americans fell short in the first medal event in Milan Cortina.
Kyle Negomir finished in the top 10 in his first Olympic appearance, three-time Olympian Bryce Bennett and Ryan Cochran-Siegle finished 13th and 18th, respectively; and first-time Olympian Sam Morse finished 19th.
Team USA will have another opportunity to medal on Saturday in the women’s cross-country skiathlon, women’s 3,000-meter speed skating, women’s normal hill ski jumping and the men’s snowboard Big Air final.
