Exclusive - Bode Miller explains how Pintaurault mastered testing conditions on a remarkable day

“The conditions are the nature of the sport. It has been known for skiers to go slowly in the downhill with the intention of getting a better slot in the slalom portion of a combined. I don’t believe that happened today, the guys who were a bit slower in the downhill didn’t lose that much time.

"In the end, we saw the best skier win – Alexis (Pinturault) is the overall best skier right now."

"I think the best racer won today – it was a little different to what I expected once I saw the downhill portion, but then the slalom preparation was going to be key. It broke down so much during the slalom that it became impossible for the downhill skiers to make any kind of an effort for a win. We saw Dominik Paris, the first true downhiller, just barely squeaked into the top 10 after what I would consider a great run."There was some fantastic skiing by Pinturault and it was amazing for Stefan Hadalin to break through on this stage. He was number one out of the start gate, no pressure, and it looked like he just went for it. It was fantastic slalom skiing on a perfect course. I was excited and we have three more medallists. Pinturault skied really aggressive and super-dynamic, whereas Hadalin was just able to go where he wanted given there were no tracks.

"It was a classic example of a slalom skier getting the right course conditions. To be fair to Pinturault he’d already skied really, really well for the course conditions. He’d already seen a lot of the racers around his start number already dealing with the ruts a little bit. They broke through after about four or five guys. Normally, if you put Hadalin against Pinturault, Pinturault wins ten times out of ten."

"Marco Schwarz didn’t seem that happy, because he was targeting and making a big move in the slalom.

"He wasn’t the only one who was frustrated, I think some of the downhillers felt like that as well. At the end of the day, he’ll be happy with his performance."