When he's not going out, he's almost unbeatable. Eliminated at the start of the season in Sölden and Beaver Creek, Marco Odermatt put the church back in the middle of the village. There was this huge success last weekend in Val d'Isère. A return to grace in his favorite discipline. And this Sunday, the Swiss won the giant of Alta Badia, on the legendary Gran Risa. This is the fifth time he has won on this track in the Dolomites.
This concludes an exceptional weekend, with three podiums including two successes in three races for the prodigy from Hergiswil. The latter achieved the feat of winning in the downhill in Val Gardena and, therefore, in the giant 24 hours later.
There is no longer really a superlative to describe the 27-year-old young man. On a completely broken track, which deteriorated very quickly, Odermatt set the best time in the second round, even though he was the 28th to start! Quite an achievement when we see the difficulties that the other contenders experienced in competing at the end of the second round, like Filipe Zubcic. The Croatian, winner on the first route, fell to 4th place.
This success allows Marco Odermatt to surpass Pirmin Zurbriggen and his 41 career successes. He thus becomes the Swiss with the most World Cup victories.
The skier from central Switzerland beat the astonishing Frenchman Léo Auguenot – his first World Cup podium – by 85 hundredths and the Norwegian Alexander Steen-Olsen by 88 hundredths. As for the other Swiss, they finished outside the top-10. Gino Caviezel took 12th place, Loïc Meillard 16th, Luca Aerni 17th and Fadri Janutin 25th. For his part, Thomas Tumler was eliminated following a foul on the inside at the start of the second round.
Before the short Christmas break, a slalom is still planned for Monday on the Gran Risa.
