Dubai Telegraph - 'Incredible' Odermatt sweeps to fourth overall and giant slalom titles

EUR -
AED 4.011471
AFN 76.929235
ALL 99.449011
AMD 426.595758
ANG 1.96388
AOA 996.122496
ARS 1161.990645
AUD 1.725496
AWG 1.96603
AZN 1.861143
BAM 1.955781
BBD 2.200178
BDT 132.398683
BGN 1.955781
BHD 0.410796
BIF 3228.767893
BMD 1.092239
BND 1.454386
BOB 7.529925
BRL 6.275574
BSD 1.089689
BTN 94.716058
BWP 14.845852
BYN 3.566065
BYR 21407.887117
BZD 2.188778
CAD 1.57135
CDF 3141.280158
CHF 0.964175
CLF 0.026459
CLP 1015.359903
CNY 7.905464
CNH 7.90727
COP 4495.055301
CRC 544.394586
CUC 1.092239
CUP 28.944337
CVE 110.263904
CZK 25.119866
DJF 194.03807
DKK 7.491017
DOP 68.519319
DZD 145.393554
EGP 55.123452
ERN 16.383587
ETB 143.124177
FJD 2.502364
FKP 0.845634
GBP 0.843917
GEL 3.031007
GGP 0.845634
GHS 16.928714
GIP 0.845634
GMD 78.593593
GNF 9443.87602
GTQ 8.420032
GYD 228.355106
HKD 8.489718
HNL 27.947171
HRK 7.564634
HTG 143.33255
HUF 400.87825
IDR 17833.375506
ILS 3.980393
IMP 0.845634
INR 94.943624
IQD 1429.437592
IRR 45976.615776
ISK 146.967839
JEP 0.845634
JMD 171.522739
JOD 0.774441
JPY 162.342823
KES 141.409387
KGS 95.794908
KHR 4383.610559
KMF 494.204532
KPW 983.040876
KRW 1586.02424
KWD 0.336533
KYD 0.908251
KZT 545.554612
LAK 23664.520216
LBP 98031.340894
LKR 323.084759
LRD 218.39079
LSL 19.853692
LTL 3.225099
LVL 0.660685
LYD 5.261949
MAD 10.585252
MDL 19.836734
MGA 5104.466458
MKD 61.828133
MMK 2292.188524
MNT 3794.773108
MOP 8.743773
MRU 43.459497
MUR 49.329707
MVR 16.865752
MWK 1894.503095
MXN 21.773842
MYR 4.855169
MZN 69.7814
NAD 19.853692
NGN 1688.529282
NIO 40.207059
NOK 11.621866
NPR 151.981005
NZD 1.900803
OMR 0.420537
PAB 1.092239
PEN 4.00019
PGK 4.441174
PHP 62.507491
PKR 305.915796
PLN 4.199058
PYG 8665.962324
QAR 3.976159
RON 5.000019
RSD 117.710711
RUB 93.245691
RWF 1548.951784
SAR 4.096304
SBD 9.308972
SCR 15.832376
SDG 656.335223
SEK 11.07276
SGD 1.457597
SHP 0.858328
SLE 24.936225
SLL 22903.7098
SOS 623.874177
SRD 39.833886
STD 22607.144948
SVC 9.557496
SYP 14201.606877
SZL 19.853692
THB 36.715003
TJS 11.897462
TMT 3.819812
TND 3.371286
TOP 2.630278
TRY 40.011891
TTD 7.417132
TWD 35.984809
TZS 2896.903716
UAH 45.261551
UGX 4003.000924
USD 1.092239
UYU 46.518833
UZS 14127.24741
VES 70.420021
VND 27826.647785
VUV 134.501217
WST 3.089713
XAF 658.939376
XAG 0.03233
XAU 0.000366
XCD 2.95704
XDR 0.820862
XOF 658.939376
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.5464
ZAR 19.857567
ZMK 9831.466852
ZMW 31.24874
ZWL 351.700557
  • JRI

    0.0335

    12.83

    +0.26%

  • BCC

    2.9700

    99.35

    +2.99%

  • SCS

    0.2000

    10.99

    +1.82%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    39.49

    +0.66%

  • NGG

    0.8900

    63.21

    +1.41%

  • RIO

    1.8400

    63.04

    +2.92%

  • AZN

    1.0900

    77.6

    +1.4%

  • CMSD

    0.1500

    23.35

    +0.64%

  • CMSC

    0.0500

    23.22

    +0.22%

  • BTI

    -0.0200

    41.36

    -0.05%

  • RELX

    1.1200

    48.93

    +2.29%

  • RBGPF

    66.0200

    66.02

    +100%

  • BCE

    -0.1990

    23.47

    -0.85%

  • VOD

    0.0500

    9.55

    +0.52%

  • RYCEF

    0.0500

    10.4

    +0.48%

  • BP

    1.0200

    33.39

    +3.05%

'Incredible' Odermatt sweeps to fourth overall and giant slalom titles
'Incredible' Odermatt sweeps to fourth overall and giant slalom titles / Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum - NTB/AFP

'Incredible' Odermatt sweeps to fourth overall and giant slalom titles

Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt swept up his fourth consecutive World Cup overall and giant slalom crystal globes after finishing second on Saturday behind compatriot Loic Meillard in Hafjell.

Text size:

Odermatt now has 1,596 points and a 635-point lead over Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen and cannot be caught with five races left this season.

A lacklustre Kristoffersen finished 16th in Saturday's race more than two seconds off the pace after failing to recover from a poor first run.

"It's incredible to win two more globes," said Odermatt, who also claimed the super-G for a third time to bring his World Cup trophy tally to 12 titles and is leading the way in the downhill.

"To push yourself over and over and over again in a long season is very tough, so I'm happy that this very successful Norway trip for me is over and now just a cool final week in Sun Valley."

Aside from slalom, a discipline in which he does not compete, Odermatt has won in every discipline this season -- downhill, super-G, and giant slalom —- for eight victories before the final World Cup stage in the United States.

Six years after his first podium finish, the 27-year-old becomes the second skier to win four consecutive overall globes, after Austrian great Marcel Hirscher, who held the title from 2012 to 2019 and won eight in total.

With four victories, he also equals Austria's Hermann Maier, Italy's Gustav Thöni, and his compatriot Pirmin Zurbriggen.

On Saturday, only Meillard was faster in both runs, beating "Odi" by 0.14 seconds with Thomas Tumler completing a Swiss podium sweep for the third time this season.

"Marco won a few, Tumler won one - we've all had a pretty good season," Meillard said.

"Everyone is in form and it just paid off today, we worked all together perfectly."

- 45 World Cup wins -

After his first World Cup victory in 2019 in the Beaver Creek super-G, Odermatt took centre stage in the overall standings the following season, finishing second behind Frenchman Alexis Pinturault.

Since then he has dominated, breaking the points record for a single winter in the 2022-2023 season (2,042 pts) and equalled the record for wins in a single season with 13 victories in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

This winter, he became the most decorated Swiss in the history of the world tour, surpassing Zubbriggen's 41 wins when he won the Alta Badia giant slalom in December. He has since raised the men's national record to 45.

"It's truly something very special to become the best Swiss skier in history after Pirmin Zurbriggen, who is a legend for us," Odermatt said, now aiming to equal his compatriot Vreni Schneider's 55 victories.

In the men's skiing world, five legends still stand ahead of him -- Swede Ingemar Stenmark with his 86 victories, Hirscher (67), Hermann Maier (54), Italian Alberto Tomba (50), and Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli (46).

However, the Swiss skier had a complicated start to the winter with two crashes in the first two giant slaloms, his speciality with 26 World Cup victories.

He then recovered to rack up a string of podium finishes, 16 before the three races remaining.

But the downfall of his season was his sixth place in the Kitzbuehel downhill.

Beaten last year by Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin, when he thought he had the race of his life on the Streif, Odermatt had made this downhill in Austria his "most important" goal this year.

Odermatt also has mixed results at the world championships with only one title, in the super-G, relinquishing his downhill and giant slalom crowns.

But he has consoled himself in the World Cup and is well on his way to achieving the triple crown of the super-G, giant slalom, and downhill globes for the second consecutive season.

G.Mukherjee--DT