Swiss ski star Odermatt secures overall and GS World Cup titles in race won by teammate Meillard | CBC Sports
Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt didn’t win the race, but he did earn two crystal globes and set a national record in Alpine skiing on Saturday.
Odermatt finished second behind teammate Loic Meillard in a World Cup giant slalom to formally lock up his fourth straight overall and GS titles.
The only remaining challenger for the overall title, Henrik Kristoffersen, needed to finish the race at Hafjell, Norway, well ahead of Odermatt to keep his mathematical chance alive, but the Norwegian finished in 16th place.
“Yeah, it’s unbelievable, two more globes on my side,” said Odermatt, who extended his lead to 635 points over Kristoffersen in the overall standings with only five events remaining.
Clinching the title was a formality since Kristoffersen doesn’t compete in speed events, though the Norwegian would have the right to start in super-G and downhill at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, which begin next weekend.
WATCH | Meillard wins giant slalom, Swiss teammate Odermatt wraps up season titles:
Loic Meillard took the top spot in Hajfell to lead the Swiss sweep of the podium. With Marco Odermatt’s second-place finish, he wraps up the giant slalom and overall tour titles.
The result also gave the 27-year-old Odermatt an insurmountable lead in the GS standings, where runner-up Kristoffersen is trailing by 106 points with only the season-ending race remaining.
“The big one I already felt like I had it, but the GS one was still a big fight with Henrik,” Odermatt said. “He skied so good in Kranjska Gora [two weeks ago] and my GS shape is probably not at the very, very best level like I skied last year.”
Odermatt started the season with two DNF’s in giant slalom, leaving him on zero points after two races, but won three times in the course of the season.
“This GS globe has a different story. The last three years I really started well … I wore the red [leader’s] bib from the first until the last race and was almost all season pretty clear ahead,” the Swiss standout said.
“This year I started with two zero points, so I really had to come from the back and win race by race …. To win this globe on this little bumpy road is amazing.”
Odermatt also set a Swiss record with his 87th career World Cup podium, moving him one past the previous best mark set by Pirmin Zurbriggen in 1990.
Odermatt became the sixth skier in men’s World Cup history with at least four overall titles, but only the second to win four in a row. Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher won a record eight consecutive titles in 2012-19.
It has become typical for Odermatt to lock up the overall title even before the season-ending races at the World Cup finals.
His point-advantages in the final standings only grew over the years, from leading runner-up Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by 467 and 702 points, respectively, in his first two years as overall champion, to beating Meillard by 874 points last season.
Odermatt already secured the super-G championship last week and is favourite to add the downhill title as well. Winning four globes would mean a repeat of his achievement from last season.
Ahead of the last downhill next week, Odermatt leads teammate and world champion Franjo von Allmen by 83 points. Odermatt will win the title if he finishes 15th or better, or if Von Allmen does not win the race.
“It’s definitely a different kind of skiing if you know you are super close to the globe but not done it yet,” Odermatt said. “There is no space for error, so it helps a lot to have this GS globe in the pocket and just focus now on the last one in downhill.”
WATCH | Full replay of 2nd giant slalom run at Hafjell:
Watch the deciding run of the men’s giant slalom competition from the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup stop in Hafjell, Norway.
Kristoffersen still has a chance to win a globe this season, as he holds a commanding 77-point lead in the slalom standings ahead of Sunday’s race.
In Saturday’s GS on a course set by Swiss coach Julien Vuignier, Meillard led a Swiss sweep of the podium, leading Odermatt by 0.14 seconds and third-place Thomas Tumler by 0.23.
“I think it’s the first time we do it in GS, three Swiss guys on the podium for our team,” Meillard said. “So, that’s something special that we are going to remember.”
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, chasing Brazil’s first-ever top-level ski race win since his switch from the Norwegian federation this season, briefly led the race in the second run before being bumped into fourth by the Swiss trio.
American racer River Ramadus finished seventh to match his best result of the season from a giant slalom in Beaver Creek, Colo., in December.
World champion Raphael Haaser had a nasty crash when the Austrian straddled a gate, went airborne and landed on his upper back. He was attended to by medics and got up with a bloodied face before sliding down to the finish area on one ski.
