Once again it doesn't work out with victory in the Kitzbühel downhill: Marco Odermatt shows a strong performance on the Streif, but is outstripped by the unleashed Giovanni Franzoni.
24.01.2026, 12:52
24.01.2026, 12:56
SDA
In only his second downhill race in Kitzbühel, Franzoni with bib number 2 managed an almost perfect run. So Odermatt knew the day after his super-G victory that he would have to give it his all to catch the 24-year-old Italian. And the Nidwalden native, who is four years older, did just that, but it wasn't enough: seven hundredths of a second decided in favor of Franzoni, who is on the verge of his first downhill victory in the World Cup a week after his super-G success in Wengen.
Odermatt, on the other hand, will probably have to make do with second place in the downhill on the legendary Streif for the third time. In 2022 he finished behind Beat Feuz, in 2024 behind Cyprien Sarrazin. However, the gap has never been as narrow as this year. One small consolation remains: Odermatt breaks another sound barrier with his 100th podium finish in the World Cup.
Maxence Muzaton almost caused a major sensation. The Frenchman, who started with number 29, was ahead of the Franzoni/Odermatt duo for a long time, but lost a decisive amount of time on the last section of the course. He finished 39 hundredths behind in 3rd place.
The fact that Franzoni would once again be a force to be reckoned with had already become apparent after his strong training performances. While he had lost out in the Lauberhorn downhill, he now remained ahead of Odermatt and is likely to have ended the Swiss winning streak in this discipline. In the four previous downhill races, Odermatt had won three times and Franjo von Allmen once.
Von Allmen also kept up with Franzoni and Odermatt's times for a long time in Kitzbühel before making a serious mistake before the final section. This threw him back in the rankings: he is currently in 12th place, 1.56 seconds behind Franzoni.
Alongside Franzoni, who was soon fighting back tears in the leader's box, Niels Hintermann also wrote a nice story. The man from Zurich is in 6th place after 30 riders, meaning that Hintermann, who celebrated his comeback this season after recovering from cancer, is collecting valuable arguments for an Olympic selection.
