Thanks to a first-class demonstration of power, the Swiss Marco Odermatt won the legendary descent on the Lauberhorn in Wengen.
On his “home course”, which was shortened by 1.8 kilometers due to wind, the 28-year-old World Cup dominator won with a lead of 0.79 seconds over the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr. The Italian Giovanni Franzoni, first in the Super-G the day before, finished third with the high start number 28 (+0.90).
Because of the “Giggiföhn” the longest descent in the World Cup was shortened from 4.5 to 2.7 kilometers around 70 minutes before the start for safety reasons. So it started right at the “Hundschopf”, meaning the first 50 seconds of driving were missing. This didn’t stop Odermatt, the 2023 downhill world champion, from winning his seventh World Cup downhill – his fourth on the Lauberhorn. It was his 52nd World Cup victory. But he didn’t want to relax until Franzoni reached the finish line.
The best of the three German starters was Simon Jocher, who had already qualified for the Olympics (+2.01), and in 22nd place he at least scored World Cup points. The young Luis Vogt (37th/+2.67) and veteran Romed Baumann (45th/3.17), on the other hand, both without a partial standard for participation in the Winter Games, did not make it into the top 30.
