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After his first World Cup triumph in giant slalom, the 26-year-old Valaisian exudes great confidence for the future.
The other skiing nations should have turned yellow with envy on Wednesday evening when they studied the classification in the night giant slalom in Schladming. The Swiss Marco Odermatt – the dominator in this discipline – is missing and then two men dressed in red are at the top of the podium.
Loïc Meillard and Gino Caviezel saw Odermatt’s absence as an opportunity and used it to celebrate the biggest World Cup successes of their careers.
Although Meillard won the parallel giant slalom in Chamonix (FRA) in February 2020, he has finally climbed the Olympus in a classic discipline. “I knew I could ski. It worked in the 1st run, why shouldn’t it work again in the 2nd run? Sharing that with Gino is unbelievable,” said a highly satisfied Meillard after the race.
Caviezel on the upswing after season false start
Meillard’s victory is even more impressive because he is ambitious in 3 disciplines. This season he was on the podium in giant slalom, slalom and super-G. “Many people have asked me why I’m doing this to myself – it’s too much effort. But that’s my way, I feel good and have fun. It’s special that it works so well.”
Second-placed Caviezel also felt great satisfaction. At the beginning of the season he lagged behind the competition in the giant slalom. His rankings: 21st, 21st, 16th, 14th, 8th. “It was very difficult. I lacked the speed even though I was in good shape. That’s when you start to puzzle,” says the Graubünden native. “Now things are moving forward, it’s nice.”