After two recent zero numbers, Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt has won the World Cup giant slalom in Val d’Isère. The three-time overall World Cup winner defied the adverse weather at the end of the second run with snowfall and poor visibility and narrowly defended his lead from the first run.
He remained 0.08 seconds ahead of the Austrian Patrick Feurstein, who had moved up from 24th place in better conditions. His teammate Stefan Brennsteiner came third.
In the first two races of the season, the 27-year-old Odermatt was eliminated from his flagship discipline, in which he is world champion and Olympic champion. Last season he won nine out of ten World Cup giant slaloms.
No Germans in the top ten
The German hopeful Alexander Schmid reached 15th place in the giant slalom in Val d’Isère. In the first round, the 30-year-old from Allgäu was in 9th place. In 2023 he became parallel world champion.
After the race, he emotionally reported the recent loss of a good friend. “I also went along for them,” said Schmid on “ZDF”. “She always put a smile on my face.”
The German driver Fabian Gratz, who was in 18th place after the first round, ended up in 19th place. His teammate Jonas Stockinger followed right behind.
The Germans Anton Grammel and Stefan Luitz did not make it into the top 30 in the first run and therefore did not make it into the second round.