Marco Odermatt won gold in the men’s super-G at the Alpine skiing world championships Friday, justifying his status as the big pre-race favorite.
The lauded Swiss standout beat silver medalist Raphael Haaser by one second as the Austrian skier earned the host nation’s second medal, a day after Stephanie Venier won the women’s super-G.
Adrian Smiseth Sejersted was 1.15 seconds behind Odermatt and took bronze for the Norwegian’s first medal at a major event.
Odermatt had a flawless run down the sunbathed Schneekristall course and pointed his finger up to the sky and started celebrating almost as soon as he reached the finish area. He pounded his chest several times and let out a scream as the pro-Austrian crowd reacted with awe and admiration.
“There are not many days or races as perfect as this one. You cannot race better; at least I can’t,” Odermatt said. “I had the best feeling from the third gate. I felt my skis were perfect, did exactly what I wanted, and this gives you in a difficult super-G the confidence to ski your line, to attack, to search the limit, and not go over the limit.”
It’s the first super-G medal from a major event for Odermatt, the three-time overall World Cup champion who is the Olympic giant slalom champion. He won the downhill and GS titles at worlds two years ago.
“It’s extremely nice to be world champion in super-G as well. It’s incredible,” Odermatt said.
Odermatt is the runaway leader in the World Cup super-G standings and the only racer with multiple wins in the discipline this season, most recently in Kitzbuehel.
He became the first Swiss world champion in super-G since Didier Cuche won the title in 2009.
Vincent Kriechmayr, the 2021 world champion in both super-G and downhill, placed fourth and missed a medal by five-hundredths of a second in his first race since injuring his knee in a crash in the Jan. 18 downhill in Wengen.
“My run was not good enough,” Kriechmayr said. “It’s good for our team to have Raphael Haaser in second place, but incredible what Odermatt shows today.”
Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the best American finisher, sharing seventh place with Italian veteran Dominik Paris.
Canadian speed specialist James Crawford, who upset the favorites to win the 2023 super-G world title and won the prestigious Kitzbuehel downhill last month, finished 3.41 seconds off the lead.
His teammate Alexander Cameron didn’t start, a day after hurting his knee in a downhill training crash. Cameron was still expected to start in Sunday’s downhill. He won downhill bronze at worlds two years ago.
The field missed several more standout racers because of injuries, most notably former overall World Cup champions Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Alexis Pinturault as well as speed specialist Cyprien Sarrazin.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
