(Bansko) Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt dominated the men’s giant slalom at the Bulgarian World Cup to score a ninth consecutive victory in the discipline on Saturday.
Odermatt wasn’t the most precise on the icy, banked central section of the Banderitza course on both runs, but he gained time on his opponents in all other sections. He increased his lead on the second run to finish the race with a lead of 91 hundredths of a second over Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen.
Austrian skier Manuel Feller took third position, 1.08 seconds behind the winner. The first three kept the same position as during the second descent.
“Of course, the confidence is at the highest level and everything is working well. The skiing is perfect and I’m just having fun skiing,” said Odermatt, who has 20 victories in 60 career starts in the discipline.
Odermatt, an Olympic and world champion in giant slalom, has won 10 World Cup races in total this season, including all six giant slaloms.
The two-time overall champion becomes the first male skier since Hermann Maier more than two decades ago to win 10 World Cup races in consecutive seasons.
Odermatt is quickly approaching his third big crystal globe, after having brought his season total to 1506 points and increasing his lead in the general classification to 822 points ahead of Cyprien Sarrazin. The Frenchman does not participate in the technical events.
Saturday’s victory left Odermatt five triumphs short of the record for most consecutive giant slalom victories, set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who won 14 in a row in the late 1970s.
Odermatt had never triumphed in Bansko before. In 2021, the last time the men’s World Cup was held in Bulgaria, he finished fifth and second, respectively, in two giant slaloms.
“I really like being here. It’s a good crowd, it’s different from all the other races. It’s a superb track, with ideal conditions. It’s a fun slope to ski,” said Odermatt, who led Steen Olsen by 35 hundredths after the first run.
A slalom on the same hill is planned for Sunday.