Marco Odermatt has finished the Giant Slalom World Cup season the same way he started it, winning. Odermatt kicked off the 2021-2022 winter season in the best possible way, taking the Men’s Giant Slalom in Sölden, showing that he was the man to beat this year in the discipline.
Those who pointed him as the man to beat were completely right. Marco Odermatt was the absolute dominator of the discipline. He finished on the podium in all eight World Cup Giant Slalom events this season: 5 wins (Sölden, Val d'Isère, Alta Badia, Adelboden, and Meribel/Courchevel), 2 second places (Alta Badia, and Kranjska Gora), and 1 third place (Kranjska Gora). The Swiss also picked up Olympic gold in this discipline in Beijing 2022.
The last skier to claim a podium finish in all World Cup Giant Slalom events contested in a single season was Marcel Hirscher in the 2017-2018 season (7 races, 7 podiums, 6 wins).
The 24-year-old Swiss ace secured the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in Kranjska Gora last weekend, the first Swiss man to do so since Didier Cuche in 2008-2009. Odermatt ended the Giant Slalom with a lead of 267 points over the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen. Feller finished third, 394 points behind.
"It's amazing. To win the last race and to have those emotions after the finish line and holding this globe is unbelievable", said Odermatt.
Today, after setting the best time in the first run, he laid down a master second run to claim victory with a combined time of 2:10.40, finishing 0.49 seconds ahead of Lucas Braathen. Odermatt's teammate Loic Meillard finished in third place +0.63 seconds behind.
It was his 10th World Cup victory, the seventh one in Giant Slalom. In addition, the multiple junior world champion stood on the top step of the podium for the eleventh time.
The last Swiss man to win the Giant Slalom at the World Cup Finals was Carlo Janka in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2010.
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