Combined, Men

Because of the weather delays in Hakuba that had delayed the start of the downhill, the combined downhill also had to be postponed, and the slalom was conducted before the downhill for the first time in Olympic history. Usually the combined event had the downhill one day and the slalom the next day, but because of the weather, the combined slalom was held on 10 February, and the combined downhill three days later, on 13 February. In fact, the open downhill was held on the same day, in the morning, while the combined downhill went off in the afternoon. The slalom leader was surprise Austrian Mario Reiter, who was almost not named to the Austrian Olympic team. In second was one of the favorites, Norwegian Lasse Kjus, but he was almost two seconds behind Reiter. Kjus had already won a silver medal in the downhill in the morning. He then posted the second fastest time in the combined downhill, trailing only Austrian Günther Mader. But as the last seeded skier down the hill, Reiter was able to hold onto his lead and win the gold medal, with Kjus taking silver. This did make Kjus the first Olympic skier to win two medals in one day.