(Schladming) Olympic champion Marco Odermatt erased a deficit of almost a second to win the World Cup giant slalom in Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday.
Odermatt occupied 11e place after the first descent and he was 98 hundredths of a second behind leader Manuel Feller. However, he posted the best time in the second descent to extend his winning streak in this discipline to eight.
Feller came close to overtaking him, but the Austrian lost 1.03 seconds to Odermatt and crossed the finish line five hundredths behind the winner. The Slovenian Zan Kranjec took third place, 29 hundredths behind.
“I know I would have been fast already in the first run, but I just made a mistake,” Odermatt said. I knew I had to stay on the racing line and always push. The snow was difficult today, so the tactic was not to push hard. I really had to ski cleanly and I succeeded. »
It was Odermatt’s eighth victory this season and his 32e in career. However, it was the first time he won after starting from 11e position at the end of the first round.
Odermatt has been on the podium in each of the last 22 giant slaloms in which he has competed. He has led after the first moto in 13 of the last 15 races.
After 27 seconds during his first descent on Tuesday, Odermatt lost his balance on his inside ski coming out of a left turn on the floodlit Planai course. He narrowly avoided the fall and managed to narrowly pass through the next gate before regaining time by completing the last sector the fastest.
“I stayed in the race with a lot of luck,” Odermatt said. These are difficult conditions. I don’t think anyone looked perfect. It’s a little wet, a little icy and slippery. It’s definitely not easy to find the right line. »
Feller delighted the home crowd as the Austrian beat Odermatt’s teammate Loic Meillard by 10 hundredths during the first descent. Meillard, who won the race last year while Odermatt was recovering from a sore knee, dropped to fifth, tied with Croatian Filip Zubcic.
Henrik Kristoffersen, the 2019 world champion, was third after the first run, as the Norwegian looked to secure his first giant slalom victory since March 2022. He, however, finished ninth, 1.26 seconds off the lead.
The only Canadian to have qualified for the second descent, Erik Read finished the event in 28e rank, 5.59 seconds behind Odermatt.
A night slalom on the same hill is planned for Wednesday.