(Villa Basilica) Confirming his role as the clear favorite for an Olympic gold medal, Swiss skier Marco Odermatt won a World Cup in Alta Badia on Monday by a huge margin to register his third victory in four giant slalom races this season.
After leading the opening round of what is traditionally the longest and perhaps most difficult giant slalom race of the season, Odermatt finished with a lead of 1.01 seconds ahead of Italy’s Luca De Aliprandini .
Germany’s Alexander Schmid was third, at 1.09, while the top three held onto their positions from the initial round.
Erik Read was the best Canadian in the 14e rank, 2.32 seconds behind the winner and a hundredth of a second ahead of his teammate Trevor Philp
Odermatt increased his lead in the overall World Cup standings to 228 points ahead of Austrian speed specialist Matthias Mayer.
Odermatt was second behind Henrik Kristoffersen in the other giant slalom on the Gran Risa track on Sunday.
“I really wanted to do it today,” said Odermatt, who won six gold at the world junior championships. After the first round, I knew anything was possible. I just tried to push, push, push. ”
Kristoffersen was fourth, missing the podium by two hundredths.
With his sixth victory in 2021, the 24-year-old Odermatt became only the third Swiss with more than five victories in a single calendar year after Pirmin Zurbriggen (nine in 1987, six in 1986) and Peter Müller (six in 1986).
Aliprandini, 31, won the giant slalom silver medal at the world championships last season in Cortina d’Ampezzo, but had never finished on the podium at a World Cup.
Schmid’s previous four World Cup podiums had all been in parallel team or individual races.
The Beijing Olympics will open on February 4.