Dominique Gisin from Switzerland and Tina Maze of Slovenia were awarded with Olympic gold medals for the women’s downhill event held Wednesday. The women finished the course at Rosa Khutor in 1 minute and 41.57 seconds. Switzerland’s Lara Gut was awarded the bronze medal with a time 0.10 behind the gold medalists.

During the event, Maze was in the lead over Gisin at every speed check and time split, but was slowed down by the final slope’s soft snow and lost the lead to Gisin. Still, she managed to catch up with Gisin and exclaimed by throwing her goggles in the air after seeing that she shared the lead and crossed the finish line the same time as her competitor.

Gisin was in tears after winning the gold medal at this year’s women’s downhill event. In the same event 4 years ago, Gisin’s run ended in a concussion after crashing her final jump.

Maze is the first Slovenian woman to get 3 Olympic medals, the third being gold.

Before the race, the buzz had been all about American skier Julia Mancuso, who was a big name in races. Mancuso had a fast start, but eventually lost steam towards the end of the course. Her chances of getting a medal were immediately lost and she finished in 8^th place.

Missing from all the action on Wednesday’s race was Lindsey Vonn, the American superstar who has 4 World Cup titles to her name. Vonn pulled out of the Olympics in January after re-injuring her right knee twice last year.

The gold medal was the first for Slovenia at the Sochi Winter Olympics and it was the first gold medal tie for the Alpine Skiing event. While there has never been a tie for the gold medal, a tie for the silver medal occurred for the women’s Giant Slalom in 1992 and 1964, and for the bronze medal in 1948 for the men’s downhill.

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