And one more that make four. On Saturday March 15, the Swiss Marco Odermatt did not win, but it has a little more extensive reign on world alpine skiing. By finishing second place in the giant slalom of Hafjell (Norway), behind his compatriot Loïc Meillard, Odermatt ensured a fourth large consecutive globe, rewarding the winner of the general classification of the World Cup.
The question was not to know “if” the Swiss would get their hands on this new trophy, but “when”. It was therefore for this Saturday for Marco Odermatt, he who took advantage of the poor performance of his rival Henrik Kristoffersen only 16e of the race and which cannot mathematically catch it – the Norwegian now has 635 points behind five races from the end of the season. At 27, Marco Odermatt rather seeks competition in history books and has only one man in front of him when we speak of consecutive globes: Marcel Hirscher.
Like Odermatt, the Austrian reached during his career – whom he resumed this winter after having put an end to it in 2019 – to earn four large crystal globes in a row. But he had not stopped on such a good path, winning eight finally between 2012 and 2019. The hegemony of Odermatt started three years later, time for the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (2020) and the French Alexis Pinturault (2021) to sneak in the prize list.
“It’s incredible to get two more globes”rejoiced Marco Odermatt on arrival on Saturday, also guaranteed to win the little globe of the giant a week after having already won that of the Super-G. The Swiss skier also won down this season, and took advantage of this versatility to take off on the competition before the last World Cup stage in Sun Valley (United States). He was even able to offer himself the luxury of not participating in the slalom tests this season.
Hirscher and Stenmark in the viewfinder
This winter, Odermatt has also become the most successful Swiss in the history of the world circuit by exceeding the 41 successes of Pirmin Zurbriggen when he won the giant of Alta Badia (Italy) at the end of December. He has since brought the national male record to 45. The competition is however rough on the other side of the Alps, as proved by the results of this giant in Hafjell, whose three steps on the podium were brigated by Swiss, Thomas Tumler taking third place.
“It is really something very special to become the best Swiss skier in history after Pirmin Zurbriggen, which is a legend for us”had savor Odermatt, who now targets the 55 victories of his compatriot Vreni Schneider. In the longer term, he can even look at the peaks of male skiing. This will have to be erased from tablets the Swedish Ingemar Stenmark and his 86 victories, the Austrians Marcel Hirscher (67) and Hermann Maier (54), the Italian Alberto Tomba (50) and the Luxembourg Marc Girardelli (46).
Beautiful objectives, before perhaps dreaming of exceeding Mikaela Shiffrin and her 100 World Cup victories. At 30, the American does not seem to be decided to leave her throne and should still swell this number in the future.