KITZBÜHEL, Austria (AP) — World champion Marco Odermatt confirmed his status as the main contender for the Olympic super-G title Friday by winning the opening event of the classic Hahnenkamm weekend, the last World Cup super-G before the Milan Cortina Games.
The Swiss star became the only skier with more than one super-G victory this season, after the previous five events saw as many different winners.
Racing in perfect sunny conditions, Odermatt edged out teammate Franjo von Allmen by 0.03 seconds.
“It was very close, so I am satisfied,” Odermatt told Austrian TV. “In the upper part I felt it was a good run, but in the middle section I was away from the race line, so I’m a bit surprised I finished in the lead.”
After finishing, Odermatt signaled with his hand how close the result was and then pointed to von Allmen in the leader’s box.
Later, von Allmen jokingly grabbed Odermatt by his neck as if he wanted to strangle him.
“Everyone wants to win here, so I understand it’s hard to get beaten by three-hundredths,” said Odermatt, who didn't finish the Olympic super-G race four years ago but did win giant slalom gold in Beijing.
Odermatt also won the super-G in Kitzbühel last year, but is still after his first downhill win at the iconic venue, with three podiums results from eight starts.
“When you are at the start, you want to give your best. It does not happen all the time that you have the same power, the same focus,” he said.
After missing what would have been his second career super-G victory, von Allmen said he was disappointed “in the first moment” only.
“Yesterday I went to bed with the mind that I go for gold, but it’s Marco, it’s another Swiss guy on the podium, it’s just a couple of hundredths, I take it,” said von Allmen, who is set to enter his first Olympics next month.
The Swiss duo finished ahead of Austrians Stefan Babinsky and Raphael Haaser, who were 0.25 and 0.33 seconds behind in third and fourth, respectively.
Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., was the top ɫtv in 11th place. Toronto's James Crawford was 21st, and Riley Seger, of North Vancouver, finished 28th.
Odermatt’s closest challenger in the super-G standings, former world champion Vincent Kriechmayr, placed seventh. Odermatt now leads the Austrian by 158 points with three races remaining after the Olympics.
Italian racer Giovanni Franzosi, who won the last Friday and posted the fastest time in both downhill trainings in Kitzbühel this week, was 0.66 behind in 12th.
The victory moved Odermatt within one of third-placed Hermann Maier on the all-time race winners list of the men’s World Cup.
Maier had 54 career wins when he retired in 2009, fellow Austrian great Marcel Hirscher has 67 wins, while Swedish standout Ingemar Stenmark tops the list with 86.
The record across genders is held by Mikaela Shiffrin, who has won 107 World Cup races since her maiden victory in 2012.
Friday’s win was Odermatt’s 17th in a super-G, equaling Aksel Lund Svindal’s career tally. Only Maier won more super-G races in his career: 24. The overall record has been set by Lindsey Vonn, with 28 super-G wins.
Swiss racer Arnaud Boisset had a nasty crash on the Seidlalm jump, one of the marquee sections of the course, but appeared unhurt.
Adrian Smiseth Sejersted hit a gate entering the same jump, the Norwegian acrobatically avoided falling and even finished the race in fifth.
His teammate Aleksander Aamodt Kilde sat out the race with back pain, and had already decided to also skip Saturday’s downhill.
Kilde, the 2020 overall champion who has won the downhill in Kitzbühel twice, skied in the early morning ours but decided against a start.
“We tried everything. But one lesson learned: don’t start unless you’re 100%, especially on the Streif,” Kilde on Instagram.
Kilde hasn’t raced since placing 36th in super-G in Italy four weeks ago in his comeback season from leg and shoulder injuries sustained at a in Wengen in January 2024.
The Norwegian ski team, though, said Kilde’s prospect “looks very good” to start in a downhill in Crans-Montana next week, the last World Cup race before the Olympics.
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