Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt navigates fog to post wire-to-wire victory on home snow
Joins greats Stenmark, Maier by winning for 3rd straight year on Chuenisbärgli course
Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt is unstoppable in giant slaloms and proved it again Saturday racing through fog at his home World Cup classic.
Odermatt dominated in a wire-to-wire win at Adelboden to join skiing greats Ingemar Stenmark and Hermann Maier by winning in three straight years on the storied Chuenisbärgli course that is a rolling cow pasture in summer.
He celebrated with a body-surfing leap onto the finish-area safety barrier, sliding across the padded fence on his back.
Odermatt added to his huge 1.04-second lead from the first run to finish in one minute 54.06 seconds, 1.26 ahead of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. Filip Zubcic was third of 30 finishers, trailing Odermatt (1:55.83) by 1.77.
Kilde already was assured of a career-best result in giant slalom as he smiled and laughed in the finish area watching Odermatt's peerless run and exuberant celebration.
WATCH | Odermatt clinches victory in worsening visibility on storied course:
Odermatt sealed victory in worsening visibility yet his second-run time was beaten only by River Radamus of the United States who finished fourth after placing 20th in the first run.
"It was amazing," Odermatt said. "It was obviously not an easy nice race today."
The men's World Cup continues on Sunday with the slalom event. Live streaming of the second run begins on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app, and CBC Gem beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Toronto's Justin Alkier (1:00.52) was among five Canadians who didn't qualify for the final run. Liam Wallace (59.00) of Banff, Alta., Toronto's Jack Crawford (59.12), Calgary's Erik Read (59.41) and Asher Jordan (59.48) of North Vancouver, B.C., were the others.
Fog sitting across the top of the Chuenisbärgli hill forced organizers to shorten a course that typically takes about 1:20 to a 58-second run.
WATCH | Full coverage of Saturday's giant slalom World Cup: 2nd run:
A 29th career win in World Cup races for the 26-year-old Odermatt was an 18th in his preferred giant slalom discipline, including seven in a row since March, where he is the current Olympic, world, and World Cup champion.
Odermatt extended his lead in the overall World Cup standings as the strong favourite for a third straight season-long title. The 2020 overall champion Kilde is his nearest, and distant, active challenger after Marco Schwarz suffered a season-ending knee injury in downhill last month while leading the standings.
The Adelboden giant slalom has been a World Cup fixture since the first week of men's racing in January 1967.
In those 67 years, only Stenmark and Maier won Switzerland's signature giant slalom in at least three straight years. Stenmark won four in a row through 1982 and Maier won all three that could be raced between 1998 and 2001.
Odermatt's 18 World Cup giant slalom wins is tied for fifth all time, with Stenmark far ahead on 46. Ted Ligety of the United States is third on the career list with 24 wins.
With files from CBC Sports
