Marco Odermatt wins todays Saalbach Super-G. The Swiss star finished 0.62 seconds ahead of Matthieu Bailet and 0.81 seconds ahead of Super-G World Champion and big favorite Vincent Kriechmayr. It is his first victory in Super-G since 2019 (Beaver Creek) and only his third career World Cup victory, but this season has been consistent as it was his eighth podium of the year (5 times in GS and 3 in SG).
Odermatt narrowed the gap between himself and Alexis Pinturault to a very slim 81 points with two weekends left in the season. The Frenchman finished Saalbach’s Super-G in 15th position.
“Cool that I am getting closer, (...) The last races will decide. You cannot afford any mistakes, but you must go to the limit all the time. Winning will be very difficult”, ” Odermatt said.
The Swiss skier also closed the gap on leader Kriechmayr in the Super-G standings to 83 points, with only one race remaining at the World Cup Finals in Lenzerheide.
“The chance is very small but for me, it’s a fantastic season, no matter how the battle for the globe will end”, Odermatt added.
Meanwhile, Matthieu Bailet, the 2016 junior world champion, made his first major step in establishing himself on the World Cup circuit, as the 24-year-old Frenchman earned his first-career World Cup podium.
"It is the best day of my skiing career! I gave my all this season to get a place on the podium. I pushed myself to the limit, and today I finally succeeded. In the last races, I was already doing well, but I simply made too many mistakes. Today I made only one small mistake, but it was still enough for second place," Matthieu Bailet said happily.
While the podium finish was positive for Vincent Kriechmayr, it was also a frustrating day for the Austrian as he could have wrapped up the Super-G discipline globe with but had to settle for third behind, but will now have to wait until the Season Finals in Lenzerheide to grab the title.
Kriechmayr has missed the Super-G title last season when he finished behind another Swiss skier, Mauro Caviezel, by just three points when the season was canceled following the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The Austrian hopes to become the first Austrian winner since Hannes Reichelt won the super-G title in 2007-2008.
“I made a mistake at the top and edged too much. Marco showed me the boundaries in the lower part of the course. I would have liked to have fixed the World Cup standings today, but I will go full throttle again in the next race. Marco and Matthieu were simply better today”, said Kriechmayr.
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