First Olympic Gold Medals Go To Switzerland, Sweden

The scene couldn’t look better for the first gold medalists to step onto the podium.

Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen snagged the first gold medal of the Winter Olympics in the Men’s Downhill Alpine Skiing event. In what is widely regarded to be the most challenging slope in Olympic history, von Allmen finished with an impressive 1:51.61 time. von Allmen was just two tenths of a second ahead of Italy’s Giovanni Franzoni, who nabbed the silver medal in Men’s Downhill with a time of 1:51:81. Another Italian, Dominik Paris, landed the bronze medal.

The 24 year old von Allmen won the world championships in Austria in 2025, and keeps Switerland atop the medal podium for the event after last Olympics’ winner, Beat Feuz, retired after the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Franzoni and Paris kept the top three from being a clean Switzerland sweep in Men’s Downhill. Paris’ time of 1:52.11 was three tenths of a second behind Franzoni’s and was two tenths of a second ahead of fourth place.

The second event to have a medal round was the Women’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon, a discipline of Cross-Country Skiing. Sweden’s Frida Karlsson nabbed the gold medal in that event with a 53:45.2 finish time. Her teammate, Ebba Andersson, finished with the silver medal at a 54:36.2 time, while third place went to Norway’s Heidi Weng with a 55:11.9 time.

The Skiathalon could have been Team USA’s first medal opportunity hoping to steal a spot on the medal podium on the first day. However, American star Jessie Diggins crashed in the first lap which opened the way for Karlsson’s victory. Diggins, who retires after this season as the most decorated cross-country skier in US history with three Olympic medals, finished eighth.

While two medal events have concluded, there are still plenty of opportunities for Team USA to snatch gold. Three more medal events are slated for later today in the Women’s 3000m Speedskating, Women’s NH Individual Ski Jumping, and the Men’s Snowboard Big Air.