At the World Cup finals in Saalbach on Friday, Switzerland experienced double delight in the super-G discipline as both Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami claimed the top spots in the standings.
Odermatt arrived at the Austrian resort already confirmed as the overall champion for the third time, while Gut-Behrami secured her second overall title on Sunday.
Competing against Austrian speed contender Vincent Kriechmayr in the super-G standings, Odermatt finished fifth down the Ulli Maier piste, ultimately securing the globe as Kriechmayr trailed in sixth place, just 0.08 seconds behind Odermatt.
Having already clinched the overall, super-G, and giant slalom globes, Odermatt now sets his sights on emulating Austrian Hermann Maier’s achievement from 23 years ago by also claiming the downhill globe. He currently holds a 42-point lead over France’s Cyprien Sarrazin in the downhill standings.
In the super-G race, Odermatt’s teammate Stefan Rogentin seized victory with a time of 1 minute 13.36 seconds, leading a Swiss podium sweep with Loic Meillard and Arnaud Boisset taking second and third places respectively. Reigning world champion James Crawford of Canada finished in 14th place.
Meanwhile, in the women’s super-G, Czech athlete Ester Ledecka secured victory with a time of 1 minute 15.94 seconds. Italy’s Federica Brignone claimed second place, followed by Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie in third.
Gut-Behrami finished in seventh place, which was sufficient to confirm her as the World Cup super-G winner, with a 30-point lead over Brignone.
Expressing her happiness with the result, Gut-Behrami stated, “Winning the globe was what I wanted.” She joins the ranks of American Lindsey Vonn and Germany’s Katja Seizinger as a five-time super-G World Cup champion and follows in the footsteps of her childhood idol, Vreni Schneider.
Despite only finishing 10th in the season-closing giant slalom, Gut-Behrami secured her second overall title on Sunday and heads into the final races of the season with a comfortable lead in the downhill standings.
Looking ahead to the final races, Gut-Behrami anticipates a challenging competition and aims to secure a fourth globe of the season, a feat achieved by legends such as Vonn, Mikael Shiffrin, and Tina Maze.
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