The Japan Times - 'Incredible' Odermatt sweeps to fourth overall and giant slalom titles

Odermatt now has 1,596 points and a 635-point lead over Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen and cannot be caught with five races left this season.

A lacklustre Kristoffersen finished 16th in Saturday's race more than two seconds off the pace after failing to recover from a poor first run.

"It's incredible to win two more globes," said Odermatt, who also claimed the super-G for a third time to bring his World Cup trophy tally to 12 titles and is leading the way in the downhill.

"To push yourself over and over and over again in a long season is very tough, so I'm happy that this very successful Norway trip for me is over and now just a cool final week in Sun Valley."

Aside from slalom, a discipline in which he does not compete, Odermatt has won in every discipline this season -- downhill, super-G, and giant slalom —- for eight victories before the final World Cup stage in the United States.

Six years after his first podium finish, the 27-year-old becomes the second skier to win four consecutive overall globes, after Austrian great Marcel Hirscher, who held the title from 2012 to 2019 and won eight in total.

With four victories, he also equals Austria's Hermann Maier, Italy's Gustav Thöni, and his compatriot Pirmin Zurbriggen.

On Saturday, only Meillard was faster in both runs, beating "Odi" by 0.14 seconds with Thomas Tumler completing a Swiss podium sweep for the third time this season.

"Marco won a few, Tumler won one - we've all had a pretty good season," Meillard said.

"Everyone is in form and it just paid off today, we worked all together perfectly."

- 45 World Cup wins -

After his first World Cup victory in 2019 in the Beaver Creek super-G, Odermatt took centre stage in the overall standings the following season, finishing second behind Frenchman Alexis Pinturault.

Since then he has dominated, breaking the points record for a single winter in the 2022-2023 season (2,042 pts) and equalled the record for wins in a single season with 13 victories in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.

This winter, he became the most decorated Swiss in the history of the world tour, surpassing Zubbriggen's 41 wins when he won the Alta Badia giant slalom in December. He has since raised the men's national record to 45.

"It's truly something very special to become the best Swiss skier in history after Pirmin Zurbriggen, who is a legend for us," Odermatt said, now aiming to equal his compatriot Vreni Schneider's 55 victories.

In the men's skiing world, five legends still stand ahead of him -- Swede Ingemar Stenmark with his 86 victories, Hirscher (67), Hermann Maier (54), Italian Alberto Tomba (50), and Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli (46).

However, the Swiss skier had a complicated start to the winter with two crashes in the first two giant slaloms, his speciality with 26 World Cup victories.

He then recovered to rack up a string of podium finishes, 16 before the three races remaining.

But the downfall of his season was his sixth place in the Kitzbuehel downhill.

Beaten last year by Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin, when he thought he had the race of his life on the Streif, Odermatt had made this downhill in Austria his "most important" goal this year.

Odermatt also has mixed results at the world championships with only one title, in the super-G, relinquishing his downhill and giant slalom crowns.

But he has consoled himself in the World Cup and is well on his way to achieving the triple crown of the super-G, giant slalom, and downhill globes for the second consecutive season.

K.Hashimoto--JT