(La Villa, Italy) Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt completed the double in the men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup on Monday after taking top honors in the giant slalom at Alta Badia.
Odermatt had triumphed the day before on the same course. He thus recorded his sixth consecutive victory in giant slalom.
“Two great days,” agreed Odermatt. It’s being here and being able to sign another victory, in the Dolomites, at dusk. »
It was Odermatt’s fourth victory at Alta Badia – where Marcel Hirscher set the record with six triumphs, between 2013 and 2018 – and his 27th career on the World Cup circuit. Alberto Tomba also scored four career victories on the Gran Risa track.
“It’s nice to be a part of alpine skiing history,” Odermatt noted.
The reigning Olympic and world champion in the discipline took advantage of the fact that he was the first to start from the starting gate to produce an impeccable performance on the icy and uneven track of Gran Risa.
Odermatt defeated Austrian Marco Schwarz by 1.05 seconds, and Slovenian Zan Kranjec by 1.22. Another Slovenian skier, Filip Zubcic, who had taken second place after the first run just 0.87 seconds behind Odermatt, had to settle for fourth place overall.
Zubcic had finished second, behind Odermatt, the day before.
Schwarz, who plans to compete in every World Cup event this season, is second overall and in the giant slalom, behind Odermatt. He has a deficit of 92 points in the overall standings.
“I hope it will be a close fight all season,” admitted Schwarz.
For his part, Kranjec finished on the third step of the podium at Alta Badia for the fifth time in his career.
Frenchman Alexis Pinturault completed the top-5, at 2.37 seconds.
James Crawford was the best Canadian skier in 22nd place, 5.15 seconds behind the Swiss.
Austrian skier Stefan Brennsteiner lost control of his boards in the first run and fell heavily into the safety net at the side of the slope. He was left with a serious scare.
Joan Verdu, who recently became the first representative from the Principality of Andorra to reach the podium in the Alpine Skiing World Cup, also ran into trouble and left the limits of the course halfway.
The men’s portion of the Alpine Skiing World Cup continues on Friday with an evening slalom at Madonna Di Campiglio.