Alpine skiing
Swiss Odermatt continues to dominate in the giant slalom
Marco Odermatt also won the giant slalom in Alta Badia. photo
© Gabriele Facciotti/AP/dpa
This Swiss simply cannot be beaten in the giant slalom. Odermatt dominated in Alta Badia and celebrated his second victory in two days. Even a German is happy.
He distanced second-placed Marco Schwarz from Austria by 1.05 seconds. Zan Kranjec from Slovenia came third (+1.22). Alexander Schmid, who was the only German to make it to the second round, ended up in a satisfactory twelfth place (+3.56).
Odermatt impressively underlined his current supremacy in the giant slalom World Cup: The world champion celebrated his sixth success in a row in this discipline, racing to the podium in all of his 20 most recent starts – he was unbeatable 15 times. In the overall World Cup standings, the Swiss extended his lead over Schwarz to 92 points.
Schmid is still a long way from the top – but after his cruciate ligament tear at the beginning of the year, it’s more of a season of reconstruction for the Allgäu native. “It was really cool and a good step forward,” summed up the parallel world champion on BR television. The top ten is his goal this winter. “It’s definitely going in the right direction. There’s still a lack of self-evidence and perhaps conviction too.” The 29-year-old wants to achieve this from race to race – Schmid’s next competition is the giant slalom classic in Adelboden at the beginning of January.