Andre Myhrer of Sweden competes during men's slalom of alpine skiing at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games at Yongpyong Alpine Centre, PyeongChang, South Korea, Feb. 22, 2018. Andre Myhrer won the gold medal in a time of 1:38.99 in total. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Swedish Alpine skier Andre Myhrer won the gold medal of men's slalom that saw Austrian great Marcel Hirscher miss a gate in the first run at PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games here on Thursday.
Myhrer posted a competition-leading time of 1 minute and 38.99 seconds after two runs. He followed in the footsteps of legendary Ingemar Stenmark as the only Swedish men to win gold in Alpine skiing. Stenmark won gold in the slalom and giant slalom in 1980.
"It means everything," Myhrer talked about winning gold medal.
At the age of 35 years and 42 days, Myhrer became the oldest gold medallist from Sweden at the Winter Games.
"I've been training my whole life for a moment like this. I took a bronze medal in Vancouver, but I've always been dreaming about the gold medal and now it's a reality and I'm totally blown away," he said.
However, it was not a memorable afternoon for pre-race favorites, as World Cup leader and two-time gold medalist Hirscher suffered a lethal mistake of missing a gate, thus failing to finish his first run.
Hirscher already claimed the combined and giant slalom gold medals in PyeongChang, but his bid to become the second man to win three Alpine skiing gold medals in a single Winter Games turned out to be a disastrous end.
Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen, who led after the first run, followed Hirscher's footsteps for missing another gate in the second run.
Hirscher and Kristoffersen saw an 11-time one-two finish in this season's World Cup. Hirscher led by 249 points against Kristoffersen on World Cup leaderboards.
Swiss skier Ramon Zenhaeusern was placed second, 0.34 seconds behind Myhrer. Michael Matt of Austria got the bronze medal, another 0.33 seconds behind.
