Ski racer Marco Odermatt missed a perfect giant slalom season and further World Cup records. The Swiss was eliminated in the second round of the season finale in Saalbach-Hinterglemm on Saturday – after nine wins in nine races this season in his specialist discipline.
From a German perspective, Lena Dürr also experienced disappointment, as she only came 15th in the final women’s slalom when US star Mikaela Shiffrin won. A small consolation was that she climbed into second place behind Shiffrin in the overall slalom ranking, just past the injured Slovakian Petra Vlhova.
Odermatt misses Stenmark record
In the men’s category, instead of World Cup dominator Odermatt, his compatriot Loic Meillard celebrated, who won ahead of Joan Verdu from Andorra (+0.71 seconds) and teammate Thomas Tumler (+0.79). Odermatt had already been declared the overall and discipline winner of the World Cup with a huge lead.
Only the Swede Ingemar Stenmark had previously achieved a perfect giant slalom season with ten victories – and it remains that way for the time being. Odermatt was also aiming for another Stenmark record with 14 wins in a row across seasons in one discipline; Odermatt’s series ended after twelve successes because, as the leader of the first run, he hit a bump in the first part of the final, was briefly lifted and was therefore unable to stay on course in spring-like conditions.
From the German team, only Alexander Schmid qualified for the season finale in Austria. The Allgäu native, who made his comeback this winter after tearing his cruciate ligament, landed in 15th place (+1.83). On Sunday, teammate Linus Straßer wants to fight for victory in the slalom (10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.).
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In the women’s slalom, Shiffrin celebrated once again, coming ahead of Mina Fürst Holtmann from Norway (+0.54) and the Swedish half-time leader Anna Swenn Larsson (+0.63). Dürr actually wanted to attack the podium again in the last slalom run of the winter – but she couldn’t cope with the conditions. “I had an incredibly difficult time today,” she said on ZDF. “I’m not happy with today at all.”
