Overall World Cup winner Marco Odermatt starts the new World Cup season on Sunday. In an interview with blue Sport, he explains why the good feeling from last season is gone.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Marco Odermatt starts the new World Cup season with the giant slalom in Sölden on Sunday.
- The Swiss reveals that the good feeling of skiing completely disappears over the summer.
- The overall World Cup winner is looking forward to it finally starting: "Then all the rumors are gone and you know a bit about who is where."
Before the season even starts, Marco Odermatt dusts off the first award of the winter. The overall World Cup winner was unsurprisingly awarded the "Skieur d'Or" for his exceptional performances last season.
The 27-year-old from Nidwalden won the prize for the second time since 2022 and follows American Mikaela Shiffrin, who received the award last year. In an interview two days before the start of the season, Odermatt told blue Sport: "It's a nice award, even if it was somehow a long way off. As the overall World Cup winner, there's about a 50:50 chance of winning it anyway." But it's still nice to start the season like this.
Odermatt won 13 races last season, nine of them in his showpiece discipline of giant slalom. With the two downhill victories in Wengen, he also celebrated his first triumphs in the supreme discipline. With a lead of 874 points and more, he secured the overall World Cup for the third time in a row. In addition, the small crystal globes in the downhill, super-G and giant slalom also went to Odermatt, who only failed to finish on the podium in five races across all disciplines.
The good feeling is already gone again
However, Odermatt cannot take everything from last winter into the new season: "The good feeling is completely gone over the summer. The material, the setup, the knowledge of what worked where and the experience, you take that with you, including the confidence, in a mental sense. But the good riding feeling, you start all over again."
Training helps to get back into shape and automate the processes, but ultimately it takes the races to "get that racing spirit and racing flow again".
Whether Odermatt will be able to build up the excitement again at the start of the season on Sunday remains to be seen: "When you get up in the morning and ride up and know that today counts again, then the excitement will definitely come back. When I'm on the grid, I want to win the race, that's the goal every day."
New contract with Red Bull
For once, the headlines in recent weeks have been less about Marco Odermatt and more about the two returnees Marcel Hirscher and Lucas Braathen. He himself is unconcerned by this: "It doesn't really matter to me, there's still enough written about. But it's certainly good for the sport that the two are here. It's good that it's finally starting now, then all the rumors are gone and you know a bit about who is where." Then you can concentrate on the factual performances again, says Odermatt.
There was also news for the Swiss on Friday from sponsor Red Bull. The contract with Odermatt has been extended by several years. In the ski scene, there is even talk of a contract for "life". When asked about this, Odermatt says with a laugh: "I hope I live a little longer than the duration of the contract." But it is true that it is a long-term contract. Odermatt appreciates that Red Bull is a partner who "knows what top-class sport means". It is about more than simply placing the logo: "There is no question or favor that is not fulfilled."
