The Swiss dominated the first descent in Val Gardena this Thursday and won his 50th World Cup victory.
Swiss Marco Odermatt won the 50th victory of his career in the Alpine Ski World Cup this Thursday, winning the first of two downhills in Val Gardena (Italy).
Odermatt, 28, is the fifth skier in the history of the men’s circuit to reach the figure of 50 victories after the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (86), the Austrians Marcel Hirscher (67) and Hermann Maier (54), as well as the Italian Alberto Tomba (50).
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The Swiss, who has reigned supreme on the men’s circuit since the winter of 2021-22 with four consecutive world No.1 globes, beat his compatriot Franjo von Allmen (at 15/100th) and the Italian Dominik Paris (at 19/100th) with a time of 1 m 24 sec 48/100th. The French Nils Allègre (23/100th) and Nils Alphand (27/100th) took 4th and 5th places.
This first descent was contested on a shortened version of the Saslong in sprint format, since it was a descent initially scheduled in Beaver Creek (United States) last month and canceled due to weather conditions.
The weather played a role again this Thursday on the nerves of skiers and organizers. Due to thick fog at the top of the track, the start was delayed by 75 minutes, then the descent was interrupted for a long time with the return of the fog.
Two other events are on the program for the Val Gardena stage: a super-G on Friday and a descent, this time over the entire Saslong, on Saturday.
Odermatt, who is at the top of the general classification of the World Cup with 303 points ahead of his first pursuer, the Dane Henrik Kristoffersen, can therefore still add victories to his record, especially as he will end his week on Sunday at Alta Badia where he has won the last five giant slaloms which have been contested there.
