Franjo von Allmen Wins Olympic Downhill Gold for Switzerland

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BORMIO, Italy — Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen won the first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics with a magnificent performance on the formidable Stelvio course in the men’s downhill.

The 24-year-old finished 0.20 seconds ahead of Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni, clocking 1 minute, 51.61 seconds as he tamed the 3.2km (2-mile) course which is renowned for its speed and technical difficulty.

Home fans had plenty to cheer as Franzoni led an Italian double on the podium. Compatriot Dominik Paris finished third in 1:52.11, half a second behind Von Allmen.

As Von Allmen crossed the line, he waved to the cheering sell-out crowd, planted his ski poles in the snow and put his hands to his helmet before pointing his fingers forward for a unique celebration he later explained was inspired by the Simmental cow, a Swiss breed of cattle named after the valley of the Simme river in his canton of Bern in Switzerland.

“The Olympics, to have that near to your home is crazy, with all the fans, the family cheering for you makes the whole thing even more crazy,” Von Allmen said afterwards. “It hasn’t settled in yet. I tried to enjoy the moment, but I didn’t realize quite what was going on today.”

At 17, Von Allmen — a trained carpenter after completing a four-year apprenticeship — had to start a crowdfunding campaign to continue his skiing career after the death of his father. A year later, he made the Swiss team and was soon winning medals on the junior circuit.

To celebrate his three silver medals at the 2022 Junior World Championships, his village butcher created a sausage called the Silver Lightning Sausage. Honoring this performance in Bormio will require more creativity from his local meat cutter.

Though competing in his first Olympics and finding himself up against Marco Odermatt, one of the greatest Alpine skiers in history, Von Allmen was on many people’s radar ahead of this race after winning the last World Cup men’s downhill race before these Games.

As the eighth skier out and with all 36 competitors needing to race before victory could be called, Von Allmen had a long wait to see if he could hold onto the gold-medal position and later admitted he was nervous before the win was finally confirmed. “I tried to enjoy it, but it was quite difficult,” he said.

At the medal ceremony, he gave fist pumps to the crowd as they chanted “Franjo, Franjo!”

Pre-race favorite Odermatt, who leads the World Cup standings in downhill, super-G and giant slalom and is the reigning Olympic champion in the latter, finished fourth as his quest to win multiple golds started disappointingly.

Ahead of these Games, Odermatt had said he did not have any dreams left to achieve, so successful had his career been, but the Olympic downhill title still eludes the 28-year-old.

Odermatt led the race before Von Allmen went out and stole the show, his ability to continue to push and stay relaxed in the lower part of the course proving the difference between him and his rivals.

Speaking to reporters after the race, Odermatt said that though he felt he could have gone faster he also “drove a truly perfect race. I really don’t know in which sector I would do anything differently.”

“If Franjo doesn’t make a mistake, he’s simply very difficult to beat. I congratulated him,” he added.

Bryce Bennett said this was likely his last Olympics. (Alexis Boichard / Agence Zoom / Getty Images)

Kyle Negomir was the best-performing American, finishing 1.59 behind in 10th — an impressive run given he was the 27th racer out of the gate.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle, the top American hope who won silver in the super-G at the 2022 Olympics, finished 18th, more than two seconds off the pace. Teammate Bryce Bennett was 13th, 1.84 behind, while Sam Morse was 19th.

Bennett produced one of the moments of the day with an emotional interview on NBC as he spoke about his family and the magnitude of competing at his last Olympics.

“You just get so many more emotions, it just brings a lot more character to your race that you don’t necessarily get all the time at the weekend on the regular circuit and to just use that energy as something special,” the 33-year-old, who was 19th in the downhill at Beijing four years ago, told reporters afterwards.

“It’s just heavy emotionally, mentally and physically.”