The 26-year-old earns more money than all Swiss ski racers before him. He is present everywhere – the shining role model: Bernhard Russi, who will benefit from his network for his entire lifetime.
Fast and sought after by sponsors: Marco Odermatt.
Gian Ehrenzeller / Keystone
Shortly before the end of the year, ski racer Marco Odermatt appeared in an SRF cooking show. He made ravioli with ricotta and truffles, with “a fine basil sauce”; He was told that it went “very, very well” with truffles. The moderator wanted to know what was difficult about making ravioli yourself. “Difficult?” Odermatt asked or said, as if he barely knew the word. “I think we can manage that.”
He won the ravioli duel against the downhill world champion Jasmine Flury and said “Thank you”. He had good help at home putting together the recipe.
Odermatt’s recipe? He is a two-time overall World Cup winner, Olympic champion and world champion, the big favorite in the giant slalom in Adelboden on Saturday, three-time “Swiss Athlete of the Year”, and is present almost everywhere. The cooking act was another promotional appearance on our own behalf. And yet it seems to some that it has only been there since yesterday.
Is he missing the routine? Odermatt speaks in a friendly manner
Zermatt, November 9th: The first descents on the Matterhorn are imminent (and will not take place due to the weather), a reporter tells Odermatt that they always say that he lacks routine on the descent. Odermatt says: “This is my fifth season of downhill skiing,” so there aren’t that many slopes that he doesn’t even know.
The man from Nidwalden could spread his palmarès and point out that he is also a world champion in downhill skiing. But he leaves it at the friendly point that he is no longer such a greenhorn. A boy from a good family who can do it. And knows what he says; and how. And knows what he wants; and how.
“Can this be?” The ORF commentators during Marco Odermatt’s journey to World Cup downhill gold in 2023.
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His manager Michael Schiendorfer says that he asked Odermatt early on whether he wanted to study as part of his career. Odermatt replied: “That’s not possible.” Schiendorfer: “What do you mean?” Odermatt: “You know, I would like to compete in three disciplines one day.” With this level of training, studying is impossible.
For many years, Odermatt has known how he wants it – and where and with whom. He has been skiing on Stöckli since 2010, and since 2016 he has had the same service man (Chris Lödler), the same mental trainer (Monika Wicki), the same manager (Schiendorfer), and Red Bull has been his sponsor for several years, a giant the industry.
Odermatt shouldn’t have to give up like Mayer and Braathen
Before the 2018/19 season, at the age of 20, Odermatt was the first Swiss ski racer to get a contract with Red Bull, and since 2021 he has also had Red Bull as his main sponsor. The duration of the contract is not communicated, but it can be assumed that the collaboration will last until 2025, when the World Cup will take place in Austria (Saalbach-Hinterglemm), where Red Bull is from. In the cosmos of ski racing, few things are celebrated as much as the country duel “Switzerland – Austria”, but the Swiss figurehead manages to ensure that no one blames him when he rides an Austrian brand.
Red Bull is the partner of the stars of today and yesterday, from Lindsey Vonn or Marcel Hirscher, and brings more than just money, but also support in training and sports science issues – or helicopter flights when things have to be done quickly, because Odermatt, for example, drives three disciplines. It is said that the overall package makes up this collaboration.
Odermatt shouldn’t have to give up early like Matthias Mayer or Lucas Braathen, who suddenly gave up their careers recently. The Austrian Mayer stood in front of the ORF reporter one morning at the end of 2022 and said immediately before a race: “The time has come for me to step down. It’s just enough.” He thanked everyone in turn, and when the reporter asked when the resignation would take place: “Immediately, actually.”
“Immediately, actually”: Matthias Mayer on his surprising resignation at the end of 2022 (from 12:40 a.m.).
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The Norwegian Braathen stopped at the end of October 2023, immediately before the first race of the season, and said: “I’m done.” And: “After this decision, I am happy for the first time in at least a year.”
Marcel Hirscher resigned in autumn 2019 after eight overall World Cup victories in a row. He had repeatedly expressed his exhaustion, and when resigning he said that the summer would almost be too short “for the time that I need to be 100 percent regenerated.”
Odermatt also admitted in an interview with the NZZ a year ago that he was “completely empty” after the two giant slaloms in Alta Badia. He could understand that Hirscher had talked about states of exhaustion: “Winning makes you tired. The days automatically become hours longer. Award ceremony in the finish area, media work, doping control, perhaps the start number draw and a second award ceremony in the evening – three or four hours are lost compared to the others who recover during this time. And I even do one more discipline than Marcel.”
Odermatt’s manager Schiendorfer says today: “That’s the goal: that Marco doesn’t fall apart despite all the euphoria surrounding his person and successes, that people like him but respect his privacy.” Or: that even after five years they still think that he has only recently been on the move. And Schiendorfer says: “He has to stay healthy and always have fun, always. If he suddenly loses it, he will lose 5 to 10 million francs in the long term – you have to be aware of that when you write about money and sports careers.
Odermatt is 26 years old; Barring sustained exhaustion or a serious injury, he still has up to ten years ahead of him as a professional ski racer. But it’s not the case that Odermatt earns 1 million a year for outstanding performance – it’s much more. Last season he recorded gross income of 941,200 francs in prize money alone; this winter, after seven podium finishes from eight appearances, he has 237,000 francs.
More than Feuz and Janka, in Hirscher’s area
Even three years ago, when Odermatt was not yet the overall World Cup winner, it was said that a head sponsor would pay up to a million francs per year for the very best – so Odermatt will be in this area today. There are also Stöckli supplier bonuses and donations from various other sponsors; At the moment, Odermatt should have an income of around 3 million francs. This makes him the highest-earning and best-marketed Swiss ski athlete to date, ahead of the retired Beat Feuz and Carlo Janka, who were either absolutely successful in only one discipline (Feuz) or only for a short time (Janka).
Towards the end of his career, Hirscher probably earned more than 3 million per year. It is an area that Odermatt will probably move into if he remains so dominant, at least until the next head sponsor contract is signed from 2025. It cannot be ruled out that Odermatt and Red Bull will stay together because it is obvious that long-standing connections pay off. Schiendorfer says: “If you are smart and think long-term, you will earn more money after your career. Sporting successes and an athlete’s good reputation are crucial for sustainable partnerships.”
The eternally shining Swiss example is Bernhard Russi, who once signed a lifetime contract with Subaru. When Russi became Olympic downhill champion in 1972, Jean-Claude Killy, three-time Olympic champion in 1968, told him in the Olympic venue of Sapporo: “When you think about management: Don’t think primarily about money – just take the best there is. You don’t have to earn the money in the first few years, but in the long term.”
This also explains the fact that Odermatt has a relatively large number of marketing partners. From gloves to ski underwear to skis: everything is available in special Odermatt versions. There is occasional skepticism in the industry; Odermatt has too many commitments that he cannot do justice to all of them. But the scene knows just as well: Before or after the season, Odermatt sometimes attends ten appointments in one day in order to meet the needs of his partners. He has individual contracts with individual association sponsors, and there are also more than a dozen “premium partners”, not all of whom are necessarily known throughout Switzerland and who now contribute differently financially. “We listen to people about what they can achieve and look for individual solutions,” says manager Schiendorfer.
There is, for example, a cheese cellar where the collaboration is structured in such a way that Odermatt earns a certain amount for every fondue sold. Or there is a swimming pool builder who might offer post-career support if Odermatt builds a house. Odermatt currently lives in a shared apartment. But the time will come. That’s what a career is all about: establishing a network that will continue to last even after you retire.
The “legend” is intended to make “noise” in Japan
Baar, September 20, 2023. The Japanese Swiss ski outfitter Descente is presenting a clothing collection that Odermatt helped design. He is the only Swiss ski racer who has an individual contract with Descente. Another exclusivity. Since 2018. Another long and close connection.
According to Descente sales manager Mari Gishi, winter sports in Japan “are not as well known as in Switzerland, not as much as baseball.” But: “The people who deal with skiing or the winter business know Marco Odermatt. He is a legend, a big star. With the Odermatt collection we are trying to make some noise in the Japanese market.”
Descente designers presented him with the ideas for the next collection during the 2023 World Cup – and were amazed that Odermatt took the time to seriously study the designs despite four races. He knows what he wants; and how. What he didn’t want from the start was for his name to be visible anywhere on the jackets. Because no one should “walk around like a ski instructor,” as Odermatt said at the presentation in Baar. Because he is “too modest and too shy,” as Descente sales manager Gishi says.
Is it Odermatt’s recipe: to make it so that everyone sees the good in him?
In any case, the logo and the overall time of the 2022 Olympic giant slalom victory can be seen on the jacket: 2:09.35 minutes. The logo was designed many years ago by the brother of Andrea Ellenberger, the World Cup skier from the same ski club as Odermatt, four years older, and an early landmark for Odermatt.
The collection is green and white, the green was Odermatt’s color input, as he tells it in Baar in front of all the invited guests, for example: Bernhard Russi, 75 years old, as if a local example was needed of how long a good one lasts planned career. Odermatt says that he initially found the original main color of the collection – white – “not really nice”; But he follows up with a message and admits that he was wrong. All good, no one bad. Odermatt had thought that just “white” would be “unpractical” if you spilled something while eating. When you “choslet,” as Odermatt says in dialect, in front of guests from Japan who hardly understand anything.
If you “choslet”. Eating ravioli, for example. Depends on the recipe.
