Marco Odermatt wins the first Super-G of the season in Beaver Creek. In a very demanding and super fast racecourse (up to 14 racers did not finish today), the 24-year-old Swiss star finished 0.78 seconds ahead of Matthias Mayer and 0.95 seconds ahead of Canadian Broderick Thompson. It is his third victory in Super-G. In the last two seasons, he has been very consistent as it was his 15th podium (10 times in GS and 5 in SG) and 6th victory in the World Cup.
In 2019 Marco Odermatt won Beaver Creek’s Super-G, scoring his first World Cup victory.
Marco Odermatt kicked off his 2021-2022 winter season in the best possible way, taking the Men’s Giant Slalom in Sölden, finishing 4th in the Downhill in Lake Louise, and showing today that he will be the man to beat this year for the Overall standings.
Odermatt finished second in last season's Super-G standings. He won the final World Cup Super-G race of the season, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm on 7 March. He is the third Swiss man to win back-to-back Super-G events in the World Cup, after Pirmin Zurbriggen (twice, in 1984 and 1990) and Paul Accola (1992).
Before today only Hannes Reichelt (3) and Hermann Maier (2) have achieved multiple World Cup super-G wins in Beaver Creek.
“There is definitely something for the technical skiers here, there are many dangerous passages. Here you have to drive to the limit and with instinct. Many favorites have slowed down here or there or made mistakes. Everything worked perfectly for me. I had a plan and wanted to drive exactly this line”, Odermatt said.
Matthias Mayer has now claimed 18 World Cup podiums in the Super-G, including three wins, the last one in 2019 in Beaver Creek. With today's podium, he has equaled Marc Girardelli in eighth place on the Men's list. The Austrian won the Lake Louise Downhill last weekend.
After the first two racers, Mathieu Bailet and Dominik Paris did not finish the race, Mayer approached his run with a more tactical and conservative approach. "That was definitely not ideal. On the other hand, I knew straight away that I had to be careful. This is how I imagined the race to be, but I didn't know exactly where to start my turns", ”Mayer said.
Today's third place is personal best and the first podium for 27-year-old speed specialist Broderick Thompson. His best result was 8th place in the alpine Combined in Wengen in 2018.
Vincent Kriechmayr like many other runners also struggled with the selective course. The world champion and defending champion in the Super-G World Cup ended up in fifth place (1.02) behind German Andreas Sander (0.98) and was out of the podium for the first time in the last four World Cup races (Bormio, Kitzbühel, Garmisch and Saalbach) in this discipline.
Overall World Cup winner Alexis Pinturault was 1.13 seconds behind Odermatt and finished sixth. In the battle for the big crystal globe, the Swiss, last year's runner-up, is currently clearly ahead with 250 points.
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