Flisar did great all the way through to the final heat. After a good start in the finals, he first fell back from second to fourth place, and then on attempting to squeeze ahead got entangled with Francois Place of France and they both fell.

Both losing their skis, Flisar managed to click them back into place first and continued to the finish line. He came in third, but on inspecting a replay the judges decided bronze should go to Place.

Gold went to Victor Oehling Norberg of Sweden and silver to Jamie Prebble of New Zealand.

"I don't think it's pretentious of me to say that it's not the best, fastest who won this time around. But it's what makes this sport so interesting," Flisar said after the race.

"To be honest, I was only interested in winning. Not coming second or third," added the 29-year old, who won the title of World Champion in Austria's Kreischberg two years ago.

He was angry but cooled off soon enough, saying he was glad for Victor winning the race, considering the difficult season behind him and his girlfriend being in a coma.