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Odermatt wins again to move closer to Maier's points record / Photo: Lionel BONAVENTURE - AFP
Odermatt wins again to move closer to Maier's points record
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt remained on track for a shot at beating Hermann Maier's record for overall World Cup points after streaking to victory in the men's super-G at the season finals in Andorra on Thursday.
Odermatt clocked 1min 23.91sec to finish ahead of Austrian Marco Schwarz, at 0.29sec, with Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in third (+0.71).
Reigning world champion James Crawford of Canada failed to finish the course, as did Austria's 2021 gold medallist Vincent Kriechmayr.
The victory was Odermatt's 12th of the season and sixth in super-G, and follows two gold medals in the giant slalom and downhill at last month's World Ski Championships in France.
Already guaranteed the overall World Cup crystal globe, Odermatt can realistically target the men's points record of 2,000 set by Maier 23 years ago.
The Swiss racer has now amassed 1,942pts and is favourite for Saturday's giant slalom, where a third place finish would see him surpass the mark set by the now-retired Austrian legend.
In a good day for Switzerland, Odermatt's teammate Lara Gut-Behrami claimed the women's super-G title after victory in Andorra.
The reigning Olympic super-G champion clocked 1min 26.70sec for the win, 0.22sec ahead of Italy's Federica Brignone.
Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel rounded out the podium, a further 0.25sec adrift.
Going into the race in the resort of Soldeu, five skiers were in a position to claim the super-G crystal globe, finally won by the 31-year-old Gut-Behrami for the fourth time in her career after previous titles in 2014, 2016 and 2021.
The Swiss racer finished just 45 points ahead of Brignone in the final super-G standings, with Mowinckel in third in a close contest with Italy's Elena Curtoni and Austrian Cornelia Huetter.
US star Mikaela Shiffrin, who has already won the overall title, finished the race 14th, 1.46sec behind the winner.
Recently-crowned world champion Marta Bassino came in eighth (+1.15sec), just behind teammate Sofia Goggia.
"It's an emotional day, the win, the globe, Nicole (Schmidhofer) quitting. I am getting older and I am getting more emotional, it's crazy. I am crying all the time but it's a nice feeling sometimes," said Gut-Behrami, for whom it was a 37th World Cup win.
"I am really happy the way I skied, it was finally the way I wanted to ski. I felt free and fast. It's really nice to end the season like that, to win a super-G to win the globe. It was intense."
M.Michel--PS
