Second in the overall World Cup standings last season, Marco Odermatt seems determined to play the leading roles this season. The Swiss won the giant slalom in Sölden on Sunday 24 October, the setting for the opening of the alpine ski season, which had seen the American Mikaela Shiffrin the day before winning in the women’s category. He was ahead of the Austrian Roland Leitinger by seven hundredths and the Slovenian Zan Kranjec by ten hundredths.
Third in the first round, Marco Odermatt (24) perfectly negotiated the second, drawn by his trainer, despite a small fault on the bottom of the wall. But he managed to finish very strong at the end of the race to keep a small margin ahead of his opponents, both very quick at the bottom. This is the fifth World Cup victory for him, the third in the giant slalom.
Disappointment, on the other hand, on the French side. In ambush after a first round finished in 6e instead, Alexis Pinturault could hope for a hat-trick on the Austrian track after his successes in 2016 and 2019. “ Conditions are good, it’s not surprising to see so little difference », Declared the Courchevel skier at the end of a first round where the first twelve skiers were held in less than a second. He could, moreover, largely believe in at least one podium after his second stint, finished with the best provisional time.
Mathieu Faivre passed by
But the winner of the last big crystal globe did not even have time to sit in the leader’s chair as his time was already beaten by the Swiss Gino Cavizel, who started right behind him. The Frenchman finished, finally, fifth (+ 0.62 seconds) after the passage of the last competitors. A disappointment undoubtedly less important than that of his compatriot Mathieu Faivre.
Second this morning, the world champion in the discipline seemed ideally placed to achieve a big blow and make his mark at the start of the season. Never really in the rhythm and multiplying the errors during his second passage, the Niçois finished nearly a second behind Marco Odermatt (0.98 seconds), at a disappointing 11e square. He will have the opportunity to catch up on November 14 in Lech (Austria), during the next race of the season, a parallel giant. That’s good, he is also the reigning world champion in this discipline.