Alessandro Haemmerle Wins Gold Medal for Snowboarding Cross Big at Olympics 2022

Alessandro Haemmerle won Austria's fourth gold medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics in a thrilling finish at the men's snowboarding big cross final. 

Haemmerle beat Canada's Eliot Grondin in a photo finish to win his first-ever Olympic medal. Omar Visintin of Italy came in third to capture the bronze. 

Grondin made a last-ditch attempt to catch Haemmerle at the end by diving at the finish line, but he was unable to make up the narrow margin needed to come in first place. Haemmerle officially crossed the line 0.02 seconds ahead of Grondin, per Mari Saito and Winni Zhou of Reuters. 

"Looking back and seeing the (playback) video, I didn't realize it was this close," Haemmerle told reporters after the win. 

This is Haemmerle's third career appearance in this event at the Olympics. He advanced out of the 1/8 round in 2014, but his run came to an end with a fifth-place showing in the quarterfinal. 

Four years ago in Pyeongchang, Haemmerle finished seventh overall but did win the small final. His semifinal field included eventual gold medalist Pierre Vaultier and silver-medal winner Jarryd Hughes.

Coming into the 2022 Games, Haemmerle had been building up his resume. The 28-year-old finished second at the 2021 World Championships, his best career finish at that event. He is currently ranked No. 2 in the Snowboardcross World Cup Rankings, behind Germany's Martin Noerl. 

Noerl missed out on the final when he was unable to finish in the second quarterfinal run. He came in eighth place overall. 

Grondin, at just 20 years old, continues to improve after finishing 36th out of 40 competitors at the Olympics four years ago. He came in third, behind Haemmerle, at the World Championships last year. 

Snowboard cross was added to the Winter Games in 2006. Grondin is the second Canadian to medal in this event, joining Mike Robertson in 2010. 

Visintin won his first Olympic medal this year after finishing outside the top 10 in each of the previous two Games. The 32-year-old became the first Italian to reach the final in this event since Luca Matteotti in 2014.