Marco Odermatt finally won a World Cup downhill Thursday in his 36th attempt, following eight previous second-place finishes.
The Swiss star, who has 29 World Cup wins in giant slalom and super-G, was close to flawless in ideal racing conditions on his home nation’s signature downhill track in Wengen to be 0.58 seconds faster than Cyprien Sarrazin. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was third, trailing 0.81 behind his long-time rival.
“It’s a dream, finally, my first win in downhill and here at home,” Odermatt told Swiss broadcaster RTS. “I was very motivated for today. I skied with lots of risk.”
His 30th career World Cup race win, and his sixth this season, followed 18 in giant slalom and 11 in super-G. He also won Olympic gold in giant slalom in in Beijing in 2022.
The result was unofficial as lower-ranked racers prepared to start after foggy clouds rolled across the storied Lauberhorn hill.
Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., was the top Canadian in 24th place.
Odermatt was set to earn 100 World Cup points which would extend the two-time defending overall champion’s lead in the standings to 372 points ahead of Marco Schwarz, whose season was ended by a crash in downhill last month at Bormio, Italy. Kilde, the 2020 overall champion, is third.
The top three placings Thursday mirrored the season-long downhill standings, which Kilde won for the past two seasons.
The extra downhill race beneath the Eiger and Jungfrau mountains at Wengen replaced a race cancelled because of poor weather last month at Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Fast through tricky bends
It used a shortened 2.95-kilometre course starting just above the signature Hundschopf jump that launched racers up to 40 metres through the air.
The top-ranked racers went down in sunshine and temperatures of about minus-4 C with clear blue skies above the clouds at a finish-area altitude of about 1,300 metres.
Odermatt excelled by being fast through the tricky S-shaped bends midway through the course where racer speeds dip to about 70 kph.
Odermatt’s top speed on the later Hanneggschuss straight was close to 142 kph. Fifth-placed Dominik Paris topped 145 kph on the section where Johan Clarey set a World Cup speed record in 2013 of 161.9 kph.
The extended four-race weekend at Wengen continues Friday with a super-G before the classic Lauberhorn downhill on Saturday that is the longest race on the World Cup circuit. The full distance of about 4.4 kilometres takes close to 2-½ minutes to complete.
