By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp
ANKARA (AA) – Clement Noel won France’s first alpine skiing gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.
Noel finished the men’s slalom with a combined total of 1 minute, 44.09 seconds to bag his first-ever Olympic gold.
Austria’s Johannes Strolz took silver medal with a time of 1:44.70, followed by Sebastian Foss-Solevag of Norway at 1:44.79.
Noel is now only the third French men’s slalom Olympic champion after Jean-Claude Killy in 1968 and Jean-Pierre Vidal in 2002.
The 24-year-old also became France’s first Olympic champion in alpine skiing since Antoine Deneriaz bagged gold in the men’s downhill in 2006.