He was secretly able to get used to the big ball in January after the multi-discipline riders Marco Schwarz, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Alexis Pinturault were injured and had to give up. In the giant slalom World Cup he is 386 points ahead of Croatian Filip Zubcic with four races remaining, and in the Super-G classification he is 81 points ahead of Vincent Kriechmayr with one race still open.
The closest thing is the downhill, where only 42 points separate him from his pursuer Cyprien Sarrazin before the last race. However, the Frenchman suffered a calf injury when he fell in the second downhill training session in Kvitfjell a week ago and therefore had to miss the two speed races in Norway. So there is a question mark behind his fitness level.
GEPA/Harald Steiner Again and again: Marco Odermatt in a winning pose
Your own record in sight
For Odermatt it is also about improving his own World Cup record. He collected 2,042 points last year and currently has 1,702. If the 26-year-old continues to be invincible in giant slalom, he could even surpass this milestone without needing the points from another discipline. However, it is no longer possible for him to set the overall record for World Cup points for both genders. This is still held by Slovenian Tina Maze, who collected 2,414 points in the 2012/13 season.
Alpine skiing Herren
Results and ratings
Odermatt has already won eleven races this winter, so he is not far away from setting a new record for most wins in a season. In addition to Odermatt (last season), the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (1978/79), Maier (2000/01) and Marcel Hirscher (2017/18) also achieved 13 wins. Women’s superstar Mikaela Shiffrin holds the cross-gender record with 17 wins (2018/19).
Record lead beckons
It is also very likely that Odermatt will record a new record lead in the overall World Cup at the end of the season. Maier achieved the biggest difference so far in the 2000/01 season when he put 743 points between himself and second-placed Stephan Eberharter. Odermatt is currently 901 points ahead of Manuel Feller.
But the Swiss doesn’t want to look too far ahead. “Everything fits, I enjoy it, it’s fun. “So there are definitely still a few points,” he said, but he was confident. His dominance leaves the competition amazed and somewhat perplexed. “For next year you have to change something so that it is a little more of a fight,” said Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen. “But that’s just us, not him. He’s just doing a great job the way he does it, and we have to do better.”
