SPAIN’S Oriol Cardona Coll won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in the men’s ski mountaineering sprint at the Winter Games in Milan Cortina on Thursday – the country’s first Winter Olympic gold since 1972.
World champion Cardona Coll, 31, crossed the line in two hours and 34 minutes, 1.5 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Nikita Filipov.
Racing in heavy snowfall at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, the athletes tackled the Olympic sprint course — a 610-metre layout with a 70-metre vertical gain.
The Spaniard – born in Bañolas – produced a decisive surge late in the diamond section with a rapid transition before attacking the mountain stairs.
While other athletes slipped on the snow-covered steps, Cardona Coll powered upward, at times taking two steps at once to seize control.
As he skied down the Stelvio, victory in hand, he raised his poles in celebration.
He pumped his fists, blew kisses to the crowd and hugged his fellow competitors.
“The feeling is amazing,” he said.
“I’ve been dreaming about being here, about winning the race a lot of times and, finally, the dream has come true.”
“To win a world championship last year was amazing, but to have an Olympic medal, the feeling is multiplied by a lot.”
Five years ago, he went to live in Font Romeu, in the French Pyrenees, along with other skiers to enjoy plentiful snow and facilities like an on-site gym.
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