Alpine Skiing - Men's Slalom - 2014 Winter Olympics

 Mario Matt

Gold Medal

Austria

Mario Matt (born 9 April 1979) is a World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria.

Born in Flirsch, Tyrol, he is a slalom specialist. Through January 2014, Matt has 15 World Cup victories: 14 in slalom and one super-combined. He is also a two-time world champion in slalom, with titles in in 2001 and 2007.  Matt has had a remarkably long career as a top skier. He is the oldest to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing and, likewise, the oldest to win a slalom race in the World Cup. He is also the alpine racer with the third longest (after Ingemar Stenmark and Didier Cuche) time interval between the first and the last World Cup victory (13 years, 10 months, and 22 days). Matt won his only Olympic medal at age 34, a gold in slalom at Sochi in 2014, held at Rosa Khutor.

He is the brother of skicross competitor, Andreas Matt.

Nolan Kasper

13th Place

USA

Nolan Kasper (born March 27, 1989) is a World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. He competes in the technical events and specializes in the slalom.

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Kasper began skiing at age three at Hidden Valley ski area in northern New Jersey, where his father was a ski instructor. Kasper is a graduate of the Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont and attends Dartmouth College in the off-season.

Kasper made his World Cup debut in November 2009 and was named to the for the 2010 U.S. Olympic team shortly after; he placed 24th in the Olympic slalom at Whistler. The following year, Kasper finished 15th in the slalom at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch, Germany.

Kasper's best result to date is his first World Cup podium, a tie for second in the slalom at Kranjska Gora in March 2011. He finished in 17th place in the World Cup slalom standings for the 2011 season. After hip surgery in September 2011, Kasper was off the snow until November. Despite the lack of training time, he just missed a podium with a fourth place in the slalom in early December at Beaver Creek, Colorado.