At the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Marco Odermatt impressively demonstrated that he is the best alpine athlete of the present. His Norwegian competitor Henrik Kristoffersen only finished second. The 28-year-old was by no means happy about it – on the contrary.
Henrik Kristoffersen was heavily loaded after the final giant slalom in Andorra this season. “Ridiculous,” scolded the Norwegian on “ORF,” because that was the course setting. “A cheek,” Kristoffersen is said to have rumbled after the first round at the finish line.
His anger was mainly for the Swiss assistant coach Johannes Hassler, who had set the course. “The Swiss are ruining skiing with runs like this,” Kristoffersen is said to have said on Norwegian television, according to “Blick”.
“ORF” expert Hans Knauss couldn’t do anything with the criticism: “Henrik’s choice of words is really completely exaggerated, in my opinion it was a wonderful giant slalom run. The Swiss coach set goal distances of 27 meters, which is absolutely fine .”
Odermatt: “I’m so through”
Henrik Kristoffersen finished 1.7 seconds behind Marco Odermatt in the first run, in the end he was 2.1 seconds behind.
With his 13th World Cup victory of the season, the best alpine athlete of the season has surpassed the legendary record of ski icon Herrmann Maier and set a new point record in the overall men’s World Cup. The Swiss player has 2042 points on his account, Maier “only” collected 2000 points in the 1999/2000 season.
“I’m so through that I’m almost getting a little emotional. I’ve always said that these 2000 points are not that important to me. But today I was more nervous than usual, so something in me really wanted this record,” said the high-flyer in “SRF”: “I went full throttle, risked a lot.”