Swiss sweep men's team combined at worlds as American duo just misses medal

New York Times

12-02-2025

Switzerland swept the podium Wednesday in the debut of the men's team combined event at the Alpine skiing world championships, knocking the American duo of Ryan Cochran-Siegle and Ben Ritchie out of medal position in a dramatic finish.
Franjo Von Allmen and Loic Meillard won the event, which combines a downhill leg and a slalom leg, with a total time of 2:42.38, beating out Alexis Monney and Tanguy Nef by 0.27 seconds for gold. Stefan Rogentin and Marc Rochat took bronze, 0.43 off the pace.
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Monney, the bronze medalist in the individual downhill earlier this week, and Von Allmen, the gold medalist in that race, finished 1-2 in the downhill run, with Von Allmen just 0.02 back, while Rogentin was 1.08 back in eighth place. Cochran-Siegle finished 12th in the downhill, 1.26 back.
In the afternoon slalom, Ritchie posted the fifth-best run to move them into the top position with the 11 teams with better downhill times still to go. But of the next nine slalom skiers, three skied out — including French star Clement Noel, the 2022 Olympic slalom champion with 14 career World Cup wins — and five others struggled on a difficult, rainy day on the course. Only Rochat bested Ritchie's time in that group, moving him and Rogentin into first place with the top two Swiss teams left.
It came down to Meillard and Nef. Meillard gave back more than six-tenths of a second but did enough with his slalom run to put him and Von Allmen into first and bump the Americans to third.
Then came Nef, who was 0.29 slower than Meillard, moving him and Monney into silver and ousting the Americans from the stand.
It was a strong result for Cochran-Siegle and Ritchie, who finished 0.69 off the lead and 0.26 away from a bronze. Cochran-Siegle is currently ninth in the World Cup downhill standings; Ritchie is 19th in the slalom ranks.
The 32-year-old Cochran-Siegle was competing in his fifth world championships. He took silver in the super-G at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing but had never finished higher than 10th in any event at worlds before taking seventh in the super-G earlier this week.
Ritchie, 24, is in his first world championships. His previous best showing was eighth in a World Cup slalom in January.
Meillard, 28, eyeing his third Olympic trip, won his fourth world championship medal and first gold. The 23-year-old Von Allmen made it two golds at his debut world championships. He also won a World Cup super-G last month. The 25-year-old Monney, also in his first world championships, notched his first World Cup downhill win in December in Bormio, Italy — the 2026 Olympic venue for men's Alpine.
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Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the women's team combined on Tuesday. The event will make its Olympic debut for both men and women at the 2026 Games.
(Top photo of Team Switzerland celebrating their podium sweep in Wednesday's team combined: Alain Grosclaude / Agence Zoom / Getty Images)