Voting figures speak volumes: Odermatt steals the show at the Sports Awards

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If you had bet money on the 2023 Athlete of the Year, you probably wouldn’t have made much of a profit. The fact that Marco Odermatt (26) won his third ‘winner’, as the trophy is called, on Sunday evening was actually just a formality.

The Nidwalden resident steals the show with his refreshing manner. He is the first of the six nominees to talk to presenter Fabienne Gyr (35). In addition to a look back at the past year, the audience also gets one or two insights into the skier’s private life – for example his taste in music.

And that lies with the downhill world champion, dialect rocker Gölä (55). “Yes, I can do them well,” he says when asked about the Bernese songs. And Gyr promptly asks for a taste, which Odermatt initially refuses. When she sings the Gölä classic ‘Swan’ and wants to hand over the word to the overall World Cup winner, he only answers ‘Dümm dü dü düm.’

After the gala, Odermatt explains to Blick that he still listens to Gölä, but not as often as he used to. Nevertheless: “They are songs that you memorize relatively quickly.” But you wouldn’t hear him singing in public, “most likely while driving.”

Good-Behrami? “Huge inspiration”

The women’s prize goes to Lara Gut-Behrami (32) for the second time after 2016. Odermatt has only words of praise for the Ticino native: “She is extremely cool.”

Due to the speed races in St. Moritz, he had just seen the video from 2008, when the then 16-year-old reached the podium – or rather slipped – during her downhill debut in the World Cup in the Engadine. “And today, at twice her age, she is still at the top of the world and winning races. She is a huge inspiration for all ski racers.”

The voting figures show clear victories

Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami are currently the two biggest Swiss figureheads in alpine skiing. That is probably why there was no match for the duo at the Sports Awards, according to the evaluations of the votes.

Odermatt wins the election with a total of 49.3 percent of the votes, ahead of Schwinger Samuel Giger (25) with 15.43 percent. More than half of TV viewers, whose votes account for a third of the total votes, voted for the 26-year-old athlete of the year (52.62 percent). Swiss sports media and other athletes’ votes made up the remaining two-thirds; Odermatt was also clearly in the lead with 47.6 percent (ahead of Simon Ehammer with 16.6 percent).

Gut-Behrami, who won the election with a total of 32.34 percent, received 42.5 percent of the TV audience’s votes, well ahead of second-placed Marlen Reusser (32), who received 18.6 percent. However, the race was a little tighter when it came to voting for the media athletes. Among other athletes, for example, she had only a 0.2 percentage point lead over athlete Ditaji Kambundji. (ch)

Source : Blick