Giant Slalom, Men

This was the first men’s Olympic giant slalom. In 1952 the event for men was contested as a single run, and it would remain so through 1964, changing to two runs in 1968. This was the first men’s Alpine event at the Oslo Olympics, and the favorite was Italy’s Zeno Colò, who was the 1950 World Champion in this event and had also won the downhill in that competition. But the somewhat surprise winner was Stein Eriksen, whose best finish at the 1950 Worlds was a fourth in the slalom, Colò placing fourth in Oslo. Eriksen would later win a silver medal in the slalom and in 1954, would become Alpine skiing’s first superstar when he won three gold medals at the World Championships. Handsome and sophisticated, he would later settle in the United States, where he helped start and represented several ski resorts, ending up at Deer Valley in Utah. His gold in this event was the first ever in Alpine skiing by a skier from a non-Alpine country. Colò would win a gold medal in the downhill the day after the giant slalom. Christian Pravda, winner of the 1951 Hahnenkamm downhill, placed second behind Eriksen, and would win a bronze medal behind Colò in the downhill.