The dominator in the World Cup is also the best at the World Championships in Saalbach. Marco Odermatt wins his first title in the Super-G in a highly superior manner.
07.02.2025, 18:13
07.02.2025, 18:26
SDA
That was precision work. Once again, everything came together, every detail was just right. Even the timekeeping was involved in this astonishing kind of perfectionism. After his performance on the Schneekristall/Zwölfer piste, Marco Odermatt was exactly one second ahead of second-placed Austrian Raphael Haaser.
As blatantly superior as Odermatt was, the scramble in the rankings behind him was huge. Haaser, the third-placed Norwegian Adrian Sejersted and five other racers lined up within a margin of three tenths of a second. The other Swiss riders were not among them. Stefan Rogentin finished ninth and Franjo von Allmen twelfth. Alexis Monney was eliminated after setting good intermediate times.
It was indeed magic what the new world champion performed during the 84 seconds between start and finish - with the difference that the whole thing did not take place in the world of illusions, but in reality, the main actor was not a magician, but a ski racer who once again did it better, much better than everyone else.
The new superlative
Memories of the downhill at the World Championships two years ago in Courchevel came flooding back. Again there was the superlative. Back then in Savoy, Odermatt had raced to gold in the downhill in perfect style, now he did the same in the super-G. Back then he had spoken of his best performance in the downhill, now he did the same after the super-G.
A one-second lead - on a slope that in some circles was classified as the easier variety, where close margins were expected. It could have been that the battle for the title and the medals would become a fight in the hundredths - under normal circumstances. But here was another athlete who moved outside the norm, who did his work in his own world.
Odermatt has often provoked the question. How does he do it? How does he manage to separate the unimportant from the important, to focus fully on his task - and, above all, to withstand the immense pressure? Pressure usually makes people nervous. Nervousness? The man from Nidwalden obviously doesn't, at least not when things get serious, when he's at the starting gate.
Pressure? Not at all. He was more relaxed and calm in the hours before the race than ever before, he said in the finish area on Friday. It is well known that strength lies in calm - Odermatt apparently sees no difference between a world championship and everyday life in the World Cup. He knows that he can also rely on his strengths outside of the sporting arena, such as his ability to adapt to an event and do the right thing at the right moment. Added to this is his confidence in his own abilities. The result is a symbiosis that is reserved for the greats of their sport.
The world champion in three disciplines
Of course, Odermatt has long been one of the greats. Thanks to his title win in the super-G, he has closed one of the few remaining gaps in his track record. He can now call himself world champion in three disciplines, having won downhill and giant slalom gold in Courchevel the year before last. He is also the first Swiss super-G world champion since 16 years ago and Didier Cuche's victory in Val d'Isère.
Odermatt missed previous opportunities to shorten the wait. Four years ago at the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo, he made a serious mistake after the best intermediate time, in Yanqing at the Olympic Games in Beijing twelve months later he was eliminated, and two years ago in Courchevel he narrowly missed out on his first medal in this discipline in fourth place.
Whether in the Dolomites, China or France. Odermatt had already done well in the super-G back then. But only in certain areas. What he always failed to achieve was the perfect run from the very top to the very bottom. The precision work was missing.
