Alpine skiing
Ski stars Odermatt and Gut-Behrami win Super-G World Cups
Lara Gut-Behrami also won the Super-G overall World Cup. photo
© Alessandro Trovati/AP
Swiss demonstration of power at the season finale: Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami missed the podium, but each secured their third crystal ball this winter.
Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami have taken care of the next Swiss ski festival. The duo secured overall victory in the Super-G at the season finale in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
Both had previously won the overall World Cup and the discipline ranking in the giant slalom. Over the course of the weekend they could also collect the small crystal balls on the descent.
Odermatt finished fifth in the last Super-G of the winter. The Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who still had a minimal chance of overall success, ended up in sixth place directly behind the 26-year-old. Three of Odermatt’s teammates made it onto the podium: Stefan Rogentin won ahead of Loic Meillard and Arnaud Boisset. German men did not qualify for the end of the season in the fast disciplines.
Gut-Behrami took seventh place among women. The Italian Federica Brignone in second and the Austrian local hero Cornelia Hütter in fifth were faster, but were unable to dislodge the 32-year-old from the top of the overall ranking. The Czech Ester Ledecka secured victory.
On Saturday, Gut-Behrami will also be tackling the overall victory in the downhill. To date, only the exceptional American athlete Mikaela Shiffrin has achieved the feat of winning the large crystal ball and three small trophies in one Alpine ski season. For Gut-Behrami it was also the fifth overall victory in the Super-G.
The only German starter, Kira Weidle, finished sixth on Friday. The Starnberg native was 0.15 seconds short of the podium. Weidle, who came second in the 2021 World Cup downhill, was not entirely satisfied. At least things are “going in the right direction again,” she told ZDF. Overall, it was “not the season I was hoping for,” explained the 28-year-old. She announced that “a lot of things will have to be reconsidered” in the summer.