
It's almost impossible to be more of a top favorite than Marco Odermatt was before this year's downhill on the Streif. But the victory, the last big one he is still missing, is not (yet) on the cards.
Due to the absence of Cyprien Sarrazin, Aleksander Kilde and Vincent Kriechmayr through injury, there was only one former Streif downhill winner at the start of the Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday: Dominik Paris. The South Tyrolean, although in improving form of late, was certainly not one of the closest favorites after his crash in the super-G the day before. There was one skier in particular: Marco Odermatt, the leader in the Downhill World Cup.
No double
But the man from Nidwalden clearly missed out on his second victory in 24 hours in Kitzbühel with 6th place on Saturday. The victory that Odermatt had described as the most important this winter before the season. He was 0.55 seconds off the Canadian surprise man James Crawford - and the double of super-G and downhill. This was last achieved by compatriot Didier Cuche in 2010.
It is also comparably rare for a skier to win the downhill on the Lauberhorn and Hahnenkamm within the space of a week. After Didier Défago, it took 14 years until the Norwegian Aleksander Kilde did it again in 2023. This alone illustrates how big the task was that Odermatt, victorious in the classic in Wengen a week ago, had set himself with the downhill victory on the Streif.
The super-G was of course also important to him, but his focus was clearly on the classic Hahnenkamm downhill on Saturday, as Odermatt declared in a media conference on Wednesday evening. Neither outsiders nor the 44-time World Cup winner himself were surprised that he won the super-G. Just one more victory, an obvious thought.
Glassy eyes at the award ceremony
But Odermatt quickly declared his 14th super-G triumph "the most important in my career" in this discipline. After all, it was a victory on the mythical Streif, something the man from central Switzerland had never achieved in ten previous race starts. You could see how much this success meant to Odermatt at the award ceremony on Friday evening. As he held the golden chamois, which only Streif winners receive, in his hands and the Swiss Psalm rang out, the serial winner's eyes visibly glazed over.
"It was simply a wonderful day and it was very emotional in the evening at the award ceremony. In combination with the many crashes that occurred in the super-G, it could be that the whole thing caused a drop in tension for me. I couldn't risk 100 or even 110 percent today. But I also didn't get up and think: 'Sixth would still be cool today'. Certainly not," said Odermatt on Saturday, when he was looking for an explanation as to why the missed victory hardly annoyed him at all and why there was an important gap in his palmarès for another year.
On the way to another four bullet wins
Odermatt initially described his run as good, but only as solid a few sets later because "I did make two minor mistakes. Especially the one in the larch shot hurt, because I lost quite a bit of speed. Otherwise I might have just made it onto the podium. And to win today, you would have had to take a lot of risks on this rather easy slope due to the snow conditions."
Odermatt simply could not and did not want to take this risk on this day. Not even for the fulfillment of his big goal for the season. After all, the ski dominator - Streif or no Streif - still has a lot at stake for the rest of the season. With over 1000 World Cup points already won this season (and several 100 points ahead of his closest rivals), Odermatt is well on his way to winning the overall World Cup for the fourth time in a row.
No break from racing
He is also leading the discipline rankings in downhill, super-G and giant slalom, which is why he plans to compete in all scheduled races in the coming week. "I feel good and healthy. The original plan of maybe skipping a race is not going to happen. I also learn a lot from year to year and I would realize when it might be too much. I can now also live very well with a race in which I'm not competing for victory, but only for fourth, fifth or sixth place."
This statement may be valid for the giant slalom on Tuesday in Schladming and the downhill on Sunday in Garmisch, but hardly from February 4 onwards. That's when the World Championships begin in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, which means the focus will once again be on victory or at least podium places for the double 2023 World Champion.