Gold medallist, Austria's Marcel Hirscher celebrates during the victory ceremony of the Men's Alpine Combined at the Jeongseon Alpine Center during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Pic/AFP

Austrian star Marcel Hirscher finally bagged Olympic gold when he produced a brilliant slalom run to storm to a dominant victory in the men's alpine combined on Tuesday. Alexis Pinturault claimed silver for France with his team-mate Victor Muffat-Jeandet taking an astonishing bronze after finishing 29th fastest in the opening downhill. Hirscher, 28, has been the outstanding skier in the World Cup in recent years, his 55 career wins the bedrock of a startling six consecutive overall crystal globes. Already guaranteed to go down in alpine history as one of the best skiers of all time, Hirscher had said he was after an "amazing" Olympic gold to cap his career, his previous best a slalom silver from Sochi four years ago. But he had also played down his expectations in the combined following a couple of mediocre downhill training runs.