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Men’s giant slalom in Alta Badia – LIVE from 10 am

Marco Odermatt raced to his 41st World Cup victory - a record for a Swiss!

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Marco Odermatt has made history. The 27-year-old raced to his 41st World Cup victory in the giant slalom in Alta Badia; no Swiss had ever reached this mark before. Surprise man Leo Anguenot (FRA) finished in second place, with Norway's Alexander Steen Olsen in third. Stefan Brennsteiner finished the race as the best Austrian in 14th place.

Ski star Marco Odermatt has been the most successful Swiss in the Alpine World Cup since Sunday. The 27-year-old skied from third place at the halfway point to the top and celebrated his fifth victory in the giant slalom in Alta Badia, his fourth in a row. It is Odermatt's 41st World Cup success, his 25th in the RTL. The French surprise man Leo Anguenot was 0.85 seconds behind in second place, the third-placed Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen 0.88. Stefan Brennsteiner was 14th (+2.32).

The man from Salzburg was the best Austrian. This is a setback after the double podium eight days earlier in Val d'Isere with Patrick Feurstein behind Odermatt and ahead of Brennsteiner in second place. While Feurstein from Vorarlberg improved from 27th to 19th place in the second run (+2.77), Marco Schwarz dropped back from sixth place to 26th (+3.25). It was the Carinthian's first giant slalom after his comeback in the Val d'Isere slalom and his first World Cup points since his return.

The result:

Schwarz: "Must do my homework"
 ÖSV head coach Marko Pfeifer had hoped for a top 20 finish from "Blacky", but Schwarz had to pay tribute to the difficult conditions in the second run. "It was brutally difficult for my head - with the slope conditions and the visibility. I had an insanely hard time, it was very demanding," said the 29-year-old. The positive thing is that his body is holding up, said the ÖSV star, who returned in Val d'Isere from an injury break of almost a year. "The others aren't nose-pickers either, so I'll have to do my homework over Christmas."

Marco Schwarz

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

While Odermatt had celebrated the first Swiss downhill victory on the Saslong in 14 years the day before in Val Gardena/Gröden ahead of his compatriot Franjo van Allmen, he now doubled up with the best time in the second run. He finally got back on track in the giant slalom after three failures over the season, replacing Pirmin Zurbriggen as the Swiss World Cup record winner. It goes without saying that the Swiss skier has thus extended his position as World Cup leader and will definitely go into the short Christmas break as such after Monday's slalom in Alta Badia.

Odermatt "in the same sphere"as Zurbriggen
The downhill victory in Val Gardena/Gröden was even more emotional, the bigger goal, said Odermatt in the ORF interview. "But a success on the Gran Risa in the most difficult conditions is no less wonderful now," he said, referring to poor slope conditions and sometimes unfavorable ground visibility. Overtaking Zurbriggen has become a goal for him in recent months. "He is a legend in Switzerland. It's very nice to be in the same sphere as him." The two giant slalom failures have not thrown him off course. "The form is great, the material anyway."

The 26-year-old Anguenot had placed ninth in the first run with bib number 24 and made his way to his first top ten result in the World Cup with an extremely spirited run. "It's crazy. It went really well today, I'm really happy about it," said the former European Youth Water Ski Champion. Sölden winner Steen Olsen saved the podium after half-time second place, 0.05 seconds ahead of the Croatian Filip Zubcic, who was in the lead for the first time after the first run. The Swiss Beaver Creek winner Thomas Tumler was eliminated.

Brennsteiner with "too little brutality"
 Brennsteiner lost two places in the second run, so Alta Badia is still not one of his favorite slopes. More than seventh place was not possible for him. However, he was more satisfied with the second run than the first. "Unfortunately, I didn't have enough brutality at the bottom, I was killing it in terms of speed." Feurstein was also 27th at the halfway point three years ago and ended up fourth, but this time his runs were too faulty for a Da Capo. "But the speed is good. I just have to keep working consistently."

Manuel Feller, who was slightly weakened by his health, missed out on qualifying for the second run by 0.07 seconds in 31st place. This was more clearly the case for Noel Zwischenbrugger (36th), Joshua Sturm (49th) as well as Raphael Riederer (50th) and the retired Felix Marksteiner (out) in their World Cup debuts.