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Marco Odermatt’s giant coach, Helmut Krug, has been terribly upset a few times in the past six weeks. Why? As an Austrian living in the Seefeld region, Krug was upset by the local media’s follow-up reports about the cancellation of the giant slalom in Sölden.
“A media outlet claimed that Marco Schwarz had a huge lead over Marco Odermatt until the race was stopped. In reality the Odi was almost three tenths behind the Blacky.” And Krug was always convinced that Odermatt would have intercepted the Carinthian in Sölden if Petrus had not prevented the second run.
But most Austrians did not want to believe that. The rankings of the giant slalom in Val-d’Isère prove that the 61-year-old Tyrolean who worked for Swiss-Ski was right: Odermatt triumphed with a lead of 98 hundredths over Schwarz and thus celebrated his 25th World Cup victory. Joan Verdu (28) finished third and took the first World Cup podium place for the small state of Andorra (79,000 inhabitants).
“Complete nonsense!”
“This victory is a great satisfaction for me,” says Krug with a grin. Also because Odermatt’s 15th giant slalom success in the World Cup took place under particularly difficult circumstances. Croatian coach Sergei Komarov set out an extremely winding course on the steep “Face de Bellevarde” in the first round.
German ski king Felix Neureuther shook his head after the tour: “I’m really happy that I’m no longer at the start, because what the Croatian did is complete nonsense. With this poor view of the ground, it will be even for the best in the world difficult to do such a brutally rotating run. This is really bad publicity for our sport.”
In fact, even the exceptional player Odermatt had great difficulty with the third goal. And yet the man from Nidwalden was in the lead halfway through the race by 65 hundredths. “There are always coaches who use particularly rotational runs because they know I’m not a fan of it. Although I really don’t like such courses, I am usually even better than in smooth runs,” said the two-time overall World Cup winner with a smile.
Special hat trick
The course taken by Norwegian technology boss Christian Mitter in the second round also caused heated discussions. Helmut Krug: «Especially in the last part, the setting was much too linear. The speed was therefore at the upper limit. Considering that it snowed heavily at times, it was very dangerous!”
It probably snowed the most during the decisive run from Odermatt. And the visibility was extremely poor. But there is another facet that makes this victory so special. The world champion and Olympic champion had to overcome jet lag after the difficult return journey from North America. “It was really tough! Before the second run I felt anything but great, the fatigue was clearly noticeable. But because as a ski racer, unlike an endurance athlete, I don’t have to perform for two and a half hours, but for a good minute, you can pull yourself together…”
Odermatt is also the first person to win the giant slalom classic in Val-d’Isère three times in three years!
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
