Second place, title secured. Marco Odermatt finished second in the World Cup Finals downhill in Courchevel on Wednesday, 0.34 behind Vincent Kriechmayr. That result put the overall World Cup out of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde’s reach. Odermatt is 24. He is the first Swiss man to win the overall since Carlo Janka in 2009/10.
| Rank | Athlete | Nation | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vincent KriechmayrAUT | AUT | — |
| 2 | Marco OdermattSUI | SUI | +0.34 |
| 3 | Beat FeuzSUI | SUI | n/a |
How it was settled
Kilde was second in the standings and needed a big result. Kriechmayr won. Kilde was fourth. Odermatt, a giant slalom skier by training, finished second in a downhill. That tells you how far his speed skiing has come this winter.
Beat Feuz, the Olympic downhill champion, was third. Kilde’s fourth place left him second in the overall. Two Swiss on a downhill podium, and the overall decided by it.
At the finals only the top 15 score points, so there is nowhere to hide and no consolation points for a cautious run. Odermatt did not race cautiously. He skied for the podium in a discipline that is not his first, and got it.
The season
- Overall globe: Odermatt, his first.
- Giant slalom globe: Odermatt, his first.
- Downhill and super-G globes: Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
- Slalom globe: Henrik Kristoffersen, his third.
- Olympics: Odermatt won giant slalom gold in Beijing.
Over the last four winters the overall has been shared around. This season it went to the skier who scored in GS and super-G every weekend and then turned his downhill top-tens into podiums. Odermatt needs no single discipline to carry him. That is how overall titles are won.
What it means
Twelve seasons after Janka, a Swiss man has the overall again. His GS provides the base of his points. Today’s downhill result shows he can score heavily in the speed events too.