Bruno Kernen won the bronze medal at the Olympic downhill skiing competition this weekend. This sportsman, who comes from the mountains in the canton of Bern, had won the 1997 world champions on the same slope in Turin. The national hero said that psychologically bronze is better than silver, because with the bronze he has the impression of having won a medal, whereas if he had won the silver he would have had the impression of ’having missed the gold.’ A Frenchman, Antoine Deneriaz, took the gold, and an Austrian, Michael Walchhofer, went home with the silver. The results may seem a little shabby for the quintessential alpine country, but they are already a lot better than last Olympic games, when Swiss skiers came home empty handed.

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