Olympic champion, world record-holder, and IOC member Federica Pellegrini awarded medals to the podium finishers in the men’s Super-G skiing event at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.
The super-G, short for super-giant, is a type of alpine skiing and is considered to be a “speed” event. Super-G racing features wider and fewer turns than other types of alpine skiing like slalom and giant slalom. Beijing 2022 is the 10th Games to feature the event since its introduction at the 1988 Games in Calgary.
Pellegrini, who competed at 5-straight Olympic Games from 2004 to 2021, showed up at the Xiaohaitu Alpine Skiing Field on February 8 to be a part of the ceremony.
Pellegrini awarded medals in the super-G to gold medalist Matthias Mayer (Austria), silver medalist Ryan Cochran-Siegle (USA) (not to be confused with swimmer Ryan Cochrane who won an Olympic silver of his own in the 1500 freestyle at London 2012), and bronze medalist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (Norway).
This super-G medal for Mayer marked his 4th Olympic medal and 2nd of the Beijing 2022 Games. He previously won gold in downhill skiing at Sochi 2014 and gold in the super-G at Pyeongchang. His first medal at the Beijing 2022 Games came on February 7 when he took bronze in the downhill skiing event.
This was the first Olympic medal for both Siegle and Kilde.
Pellegrini is one of Italy’s most successful swimmers in the history of the sport, having won Olympic gold in the 200 freestyle in 2008 and silver in 2004. Pellegrini retired from swimming in 2021 following her 5th and final Olympic showing. At the Tokyo 2020 Games, Pellegrini became only the second swimmer in history, behind Michael Phelps, to reach the Olympic final in the same event 5 times.
She finished 7th overall in the 200 freestyle in Tokyo, following a 4th place finish in 2016, 5th in 2012, and her two podium finishes in 2004 and 2008. Pellegrini left the sport as the world record holder in the long course 200 freestyle with a 1:52.98 from 2009.
Fun fact: the name of the silver medalist in the men’s cross country ski sprint is Federico Pellegrino (ITA). Too bad she couldn’t present that!