Shock in the World Cup final: Marco Odermatt missed his tenth victory in the tenth giant slalom of the winter in Saalbach. As the leader, he retired after a driving error and ensured that Ingemar Stenmark remains the only athlete with a perfect season in this discipline.
In the first round, Odermatt once again demonstrated his dominance. With a gap of 0.4 seconds, Loic Meillard was the only one who was within striking distance of his Swiss compatriot; the rest of the competition was already over 1.3 seconds behind at halftime.
But then Odermatt made a mistake right at the start of the second run and lost his balance and control of his skis. After a missed goal, his dream of the Stenmark record was ended. Meillard took victory ahead of Joan Verdu. The surprise driver of the day was 0.71 seconds slower than the day’s winner and moved up from fifth place to second place with a strong second run. Thomas Thumler completed the podium (+0.79 seconds).
Two Stenmark records remain
Exceptional rider Odermatt would have been only the second skier to win all of the season’s races in the giant slalom. Only Ingemar Stenmark managed to win all ten World Cups in this discipline in one winter in the 1978/79 season. Odermatt was unable to equal this record and so he has to write off another record. Because it was his first defeat after twelve wins in a row across all seasons, so the Stenmark record of 14 successes also remains.
Schmid with too many mistakes
Alexander Schmid, a DSV athlete, also qualified for the last giant slalom race of the season – but the first round didn’t go well. The parallel slalom world champion from about a year ago made a mistake in the first third of the race and built up a big gap right up to the finish. He went into the final in 14th place, 2.69 seconds behind.
There Schmid started furiously and extended his lead over the drivers who had started in front of him, but then he fell victim to the track, which was extremely softened by the sun, but also made a few mistakes and at this point fell three places back to fourth place. In the final tally, thanks to the Odermatt failure, this meant 15th place (+1.83 seconds) in the last giant slalom of the season.