The Italian Giovanni Franzoni won the Hahnenkamm downhill run in Kitzbühel. In a thriller of one hundredths, the 24-year-old ski racer prevailed over Swiss superstar Marco Odermatt. The Frenchman Maxence Muzaton came third at the prestigious World Cup in Tyrol. “Unbelievable. I don’t even know what to say,” said Franzoni after the victory. He felt the “energy” of the 45,000 spectators. Now, a week after his victory in the Super-G in Wengen, “I’m going to the Olympics with great self-confidence.”
At the moment of his greatest success, he thought of his late skiing companion Matteo Franzoso. “I know he would be proud of me.” The Italian, who received the record winner’s prize money of 101,000 euros, also broke the Swiss dominance in the downhill after four victories in the first four races of the season.
Luis Vogt brought joy to the German team: The 23-year-old achieved a strong eighth place, despite the high start number 40. This was the best World Cup result of Vogt’s career to date. “Awesome,” he said. “I think you saw that at the finish. I’m really happy.” He tried to “fight to the finish,” said Vogt. “Something could certainly have been done better downstairs. But I still have to leave some reserves for next year,” said the man from Garmisch.
Odermatt is disappointed
Vogt was only 0.95 seconds behind the winner and 0.56 seconds short of a place on the podium. Simon Jocher (+1.99 seconds) came in 30th place. Experienced Romed Baumann (2.64 seconds back) only made it to 43rd place.
Odermatt, who has never had the prestigious downhill run in Kitzbühel won, was visibly disappointed after his ride. “Today there was only one thing and that was victory. If you miss it by seven hundredths, then it really hurts.” However, the gap has never been as close as this year. One small consolation remains: with his 100th podium finish in the World Cup, Odermatt breaks another sound barrier.
It will now be exciting to see whether this success will still have an impact on the German Olympic team: Vogt was actually not nominated for the Winter Games because he did not achieve the German standard of one top eight or two top 15 places this winter. However, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) brought Anton Grammel into the squad, among others, who only has a place in the top 15 in the World Cup.
