Gold and silver for the Schoch siblings
Swiss snowboarder Philipp Schoch has won gold and his brother Simon silver in the men's parallel giant slalom at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
The Schochs had to battle it out against each other in the two-run final, with Philipp easily claiming victory. Austrian Siegfried Grabner won bronze.
With Wednesday’s win Philipp successfully defended his gold won four years ago at the Salt Lake City games. It is Simon’s first Olympic medal after he missed out in 2002.
“It’s an incredible feeling. It’s the greatest thing that could happen to me,” Philipp told Swiss public television.
On the fact that he had to race his brother for the gold, Philipp said that it had been a “dream situation” for him.
“Our Dad’s going to throw a huge party for us both in our home village. It’ll be fantastic,” he said.
At 26-years-old, Philipp is one year younger than his brother. They both hail from the village of Fischenthal near Zurich.
Philipp gained an advantage over his brother in the first run of the final on the easier blue course and maintained it in the second run when they switched sides.
He wins Switzerland’s third gold of the games. The total medal tally now rises to ten.
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The brothers were greeted by a strong contingent of flag-waving Swiss as they finished their final run. The two Schochs gave each other a long hug afterwards and stood with their arms around each other’s shoulders as they posed for photos.
Both were both widely tipped for the medal having dominated the earlier rounds. Simon came into the Games rated first in the speciality rankings in the World Cup and his brother second.
Philipp becomes the first ever two-time gold medal winner in Olympic snowboarding, now in its third Winter Games.
Switzerland had brought the top four in the World Cup rankings to the event and was hoping for a clean sweep. But this ended after Heinz Inniger and Gilles Jaquet clipped the gates and fell in the quarterfinals.
Wednesday’s final at Bardonecchia was only the eighth time that two brothers had faced each other as opponents in the same Winter Olympic event.
The first time was in 1928 in St Moritz when United States brothers Jennison and John Heaton took first and second in the skeleton.
More recently, Italians Wilfried and Norbert Huber took medals in the luge in 1994, although with different partners.
swissinfo with agencies
Snowboard parallel giant slalom results:
1. Philipp Schoch (Switzerland)
2. Simon Schoch (Switzerland)
3. Siegfried Grabner (Austria)
4. Mathieu Bozzetto (France)
Switzerland has four of the top ranked men in the parallel slalom event: Simon Schoch (1), Philipp Schoch (2), Heinz Inniger (3), Gilles Jaquet (4).
In Salt Lake City four years ago, Philipp Schoch took gold in the men’s parallel giant slalom.
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