Legendary alpine skier Stenmark competes in pole vault at World Masters

(Reuters) - Alpine skiing great Ingemar Stenmark is still wowing audiences with his skill between the poles at the age of 68, but this time it's in pole vault at the World Masters Athletics Championships.

Sweden's Stenmark, who won two Olympic golds and five Alpine World Ski Championships gold medals in slalom and giant slalom, cleared 3.0 meters, a personal second-best, in Gothenburg on Monday, driving the crowd into wild applause.

A home favourite, Stenmark finished eighth in Final A of the men's 65-69 age category.

Stenmark retired from Alpine World Cup skiing in 1989 but his record of 86 career wins stood until March 2023 when American Mikaela Shiffrin broke it. He still holds the record for the biggest win margin in a World Cup alpine race, winning by 4.06 seconds in 1979.

(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; editing by Giles Elgood)