Five in a row. Marco Odermatt won the Adelboden giant slalom on Saturday in 2:31.23, 0.49 seconds ahead of Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, with Léo Anguenot third at 0.68. It is his fifth consecutive win on the Chuenisbärgli. Ingemar Stenmark won four in a row there between 1978/79 and 1981/82. Nobody had won five.
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Time / Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marco OdermattSUI | SUI | 2:31.23 |
| 2 | Lucas Pinheiro BraathenBRA | BRA | +0.49 |
| 3 | Léo AnguenotFRA | FRA | +0.68 |
Last man down, on ice
The snow was icy, the visibility poor, and both got worse through the day. The second run took out Marco Schwarz and Stefan Brennsteiner, two of the men who had beaten Odermatt in the previous three giant slaloms. Pinheiro Braathen was in the lead with only Odermatt left to come, which on the Chuenisbärgli is the worst place to be: the hill’s steep upper pitch gets scraped into a sheet and the rhythm changes at the bottom catch anyone whose skis have started to slide.
Odermatt took 0.49 off him. Anguenot, who likes ice and said so, climbed to third from a previous Adelboden best of 16th; it was his second career podium, after second place at Alta Badia the season before. Pinheiro Braathen’s own note on the day was that it was the first time he had seen the Adelboden finish line since the knee injury he suffered there.
What the fifth win means on the lists
- First skier to win five consecutive World Cup giant slaloms at Adelboden.
- Five Adelboden giant slalom wins in total, equalling Stenmark.
- 46 career World Cup giant slalom podiums, level with Michael von Grünigen and Vreni Schneider for third all-time, behind Stenmark’s 72 and Marcel Hirscher’s 59.
- 51st World Cup win.
Odermatt’s phrasing was unusually plain for a man who gives little away: Adelboden was his first love and would always be his big love, and winning a childhood dream for a fifth time in a row was special.
The rest of the weekend
Paco Rassat won Sunday’s slalom by 0.18 from Atle Lie McGrath, with Henrik Kristoffersen third. It was Rassat’s second win of the winter, seven weeks after his first in Gurgl.
Odermatt did not keep the giant slalom globe. He went out in the first run of the final giant slalom at Hafjell in March, and Pinheiro Braathen — second here — took it by 52 points.