SILVER! Omar Visintin celebrates his next Olympic medal

The small smile at the start turned into a silver glow in the finish area. Omar Visintin performed freely at the Olympic premiere of the mixed event and showed his usual confident side. On the way to the final there was no match for him and his teammate Michela Moioli. In the final decision, the two even reached for gold for a short time. However, the American duo Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis thwarted their plans.

Visintin's success also marks South Tyrol's fourth medal at these Winter Games. Only twice in history has the Olympic medal shower been greater: 1994 in Lillehammer (8) and 2014 in Sochi (5). Visintin defies the conditions In contrast to the snowboarders' individual performances, the conditions were somewhat more adverse early on Saturday morning. The snowboarders had to hold their own in the driving snow in Beijing. For Visintin, however, the conditions seemed to be made. The 32-year-old started the race extremely aggressively in both the quarter and semi-finals and established himself in the lead. It couldn't be more exciting: Nick Baumgartner and Omar Visintin. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

While he worked in the background in the singles and waited in the slipstream of his opponents, in the mixed doubles he took the reins and directed the racing. His partner Moioli confidently converted Visntin's strong preparatory work into stage victories. The 2018 Olympic champion once again proved her extra class after being more than just disappointed with her eighth place in the individual. Moioli on the way to gold In the final everything came down to a thriller. Visintin timed his run in an impressive way and gradually approached the leader Nick Baumgartner. After he was able to leave the Canadian Eliot Grondin and Lorenzo Sommariva behind him, he caught up with Baumgartner. He had a duel with the American at the highest level and was only beaten by four hundredths of a second. Moioli and Jacobellis fought for gold. © APA/afp / BEN STANSALL

Moioli then got off to a fantastic start and took the lead straight away. At the first split, the Azzurra was actually half a second ahead of its competition - the gold was within reach! But Lindsey Jacobellis started a daring comeback and let Visintin and Moioli's gold dream collapse in the final section. In the end, only two tenths of a second were missing from the Olympic victory. Bronze went to Canada, which was eliminated from the race for gold relatively early due to a fall with the second Italian team.

The Olympic Games are coming to an end for snowboarders. Next week only the Big Air specialists will be required. Omar Visintin will start his journey home with two medals. After his injury around two months ago, the South Tyrolean achieved a true Olympic fairytale in Beijing.

Pos Name Team GOLD Nick Baumgartner/Lindsey Jacobellis USA 1 SILBER Omar Visintin/Michela Moioli ITA 1 BRONZE Eliot Grondin/Meryeta Odine CAN1 4. Lorenzo Sommariva/Caterina Carpano ITA 2 5. Martin Nörl/Jana Fischer GIVES 1 6. Huw Nightingale/Charlotte Bankes GB 1 7. Kalle Koblet/Sophie Hediger SUI 1 8. Daniil Donskikh/Kristina Paul ROC1

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SILVER! Omar Visintin celebrates his next Olympic medal

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