By Michael Pavitt

Switzerland earned a surprise victory in the Nations Team Event ©Agence Zoom/Getty ImagesSwitzerland earned a shock victory in the Nations Team Event at the Alpine Skiing World Cup Season Finals in Meribel, France.


Seven nations were in the event, which the International Ski Federation are campaigning for to be added to the Winter Olympics programme at Pyeongchang 2018. 

The 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championship gold medallists Austria given a bye to the semi-final phase while the other six countries battled to join them. 

In the opening round, Switzerland earned a narrow win over Germany after both teams took two wins apiece, as their skiers competed in head to head parallel races, with Switzerland ultimately prevailing after their accumulative time of 36.39sec was 0.20 seconds faster than the Germans.

The Swiss squad, comprising Charlotte Chable, Michelle Gisin, Wendy Holdener, Gino Caviezel, Justin Mursier and Reto Schmidiger, then secured a 3-1 victory over Italy in the semi-final to set up a final against World Championship bronze medallists Sweden.

World champions Austria could only manage a third place finish in the Alpine Skiing World Cup Season Finals in Meribel ©Agence Zoom/Getty ImagesWorld champions Austria could only manage a third place finish in the Alpine Skiing World Cup Season Finals in Meribel ©Agence Zoom/Getty Images



Sweden had defeated world champions Austria after their semi-final was decided by the combined times of their skiers, with the Swedish team posting a time of 36.68, while Austria finished 0.12 seconds further back.

The Swedish team were unable to claim the overall victory, as after they shared two victories apiece with Switzerland, the Swiss prevailed again on the combined time, after their quartet for the final posted a time of 36.33sec, 0.09 seconds faster than their rivals.

Austria completed the podium as they earned three victories out of four against Italy in the small final.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]