Olympic ski champ Odermatt wins weather-affected GS, ties US racer Ligety for 24 career wins

VAL d’ISERE, France (AP) — Olympic champion Marco Odermatt won a weather-affected men’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday to earn his first points in the discipline this season.

Tough conditions with dense snowfall and flat light on the challenging Face de Bellevarde course worsened near the end of the race, causing Odermatt to lose more than three seconds on the fastest racer in the final run.

Still, the Swiss standout managed to just hold on to his first-run advantage and won the race by a small margin.

Austrian skiers Patrick Feurstein and Stefan Brennsteiner completed the podium, trailing Odermatt by 0.08 and 0.12 seconds, respectively. It was the first career top-three result for Feurstein.

“It was obviously one of the biggest fights we’ve ever had, I guess,” Odermatt said.

“I love this atmosphere, when it’s getting dark and snowy, like winter should be,” he added. “This is exactly for me, I really liked the tough conditions.”

The three-time overall champion won the first nine of 10 giant slaloms races last season, but then had failed to finish the final event in March and the first two races of the new season.

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“I never lost my confidence, I knew I’m still fast and I still can win races,” said Odermatt, who screamed in celebration and hit his chest with his fist several times after finishing.

“For sure, after not finishing the last races, I really wanted to do a good result today,” he said.

With the win, Odermatt matched the career tally of Ted Ligety, the American GS specialist who won 24 World Cup races in the discipline between 2006 and 2015.

Only two racers in World Cup history have won more giant slaloms — Marcel Hirscher with 31, and Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark with 46.

Hirscher, the record eight-time overall champion from Austria who returned to the circuit for the Netherlands after his initial retirement five years ago, ended his comeback season last week after tearing his left ACL during a training run.

Several lower-ranked skiers benefitted from the changing conditions, most notably Luca Aerni.

Odermatt’s Swiss teammate was the last starter in the 62-skier field, just qualified for the second run in 30th position, and then posted the fastest time in the final leg to finish fourth, 0.11 seconds off the podium.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who earned Brazil’s first-ever World Cup podium in Alpine skiing and had moved atop the GS season standings last week, struggled on the steep middle section in the first run and finished 2.35 seconds off the lead, before he failed to finish his second and didn’t score points.

Henrik Kristoffersen dropped from second after the first run to fifth and overtook Pinheiro Braathen in the discipline standings. The Norwegian also tops the overall standings with 290 points, 10 ahead of Odermatt.

Thomas Tumler, who won last week’s race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, placed 25th and was 1.80 behind his teammate Odermatt.

The winner of the season-opening GS in October, Alexander Steen Olsen, sat out the race because of a persistent knee issue. He traveled back to Norway for treatment but was expected to return for a GS in Alta Badia, Italy next week.

Olympic slalom champion Clement Noel skied through a gate and slid off the course and into the safety netting. The Frenchman got up but remained on the hill and was attended by a team doctor before slipping down to the finish area.

The French team said Noel sprained his ankle and would decide about his start in Sunday’s slalom on the same hill only after his warmup for that race. He won the first two races in that discipline this season.

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