In Kvitfjell for a hat-trick with a silent ball: Svindal is enthusiastic about “team captain” Odermatt

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Marco Odermatt is really angry immediately after reaching the finish line at the Kvitfjell Super-G. When the man from Nidwalden saw on the scoreboard that Jeffrey Read (26), son of the legendary Crazy Canuck Ken Read, had ridden two hundredths faster, he clutched his head meaningfully. «I was sure that there was no way I could reach the podium with this stage. And I was especially annoyed because I didn’t ride the Tommy Moe corner as smoothly as I had planned before the start,” Odermatt explains.

At the end of this day, the athlete of the century can still be happy with the 67th podium place of his World Cup career. But: Since the Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr (32) achieved his 18th World Cup victory on the 1994 Olympic track, Odermatt has to worry about the small Super-G ball at least until the World Cup final in Saalbach. His lead in the discipline rankings is 81 points. In plain language this means: if Kriechmayr is victorious again in the home match in Saalbach, Odermatt will need a 13th place to win the ball. But when you consider that the three-time Swiss Athlete of the Year has never been worse than fourth place in the Super-G this season, then it would have to be the devil if this ball ended up in Kriechmayr’s display case.

The general World Cup bill

What is much more important anyway: Odermatt wins the large crystal ball for the third time in a row! Eleven races before the end of the season, the Buochser has 918 points ahead of the Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin and 933 points ahead of the Austrian Manuel Feller. Because Sarrazin will compete in a maximum of six more races after his calf injury and Feller will compete in nine more races, Odermatt can be congratulated on his third overall victory in the World Cup. It is practically impossible that Feller could theoretically start the last nine technical races, and that too in downhill and super-G. “That is why I sign that I am confident about the World Cup in general,” Odermatt nods.

Someone who is particularly pleased about the recent coup by the Central Swiss is the old Norwegian master Aksel Lund Svindal (41). The two-time overall World Cup winner (2006/07, 2008/09) emerged in Kvitfjell as a big Odermatt fan. “Marco is not only a great skier, he is also an excellent team player,” Svindal enthuses. “In the past there have been many great drivers who isolated themselves from the rest of the team with individual trainers. But Marco does exactly the opposite. I have seen him several times, how he gives his teammates valuable advice and how he cheers for them. He does exactly what was always particularly important to me.”

Svindal is therefore convinced that the Swiss men will perform even stronger in the future. «A young athlete like Franjo von Allmen will grow even faster thanks to such an excellent team captain like Odermatt. Marco will pave the way for many Swiss to reach the top of the world.” One of these future prospects that is developing very well in the aftermath of Odermatt is the Valais Arnaud Boisset. The 25-year-old finished eighth in the top ten in the Kvitfjell Super-G for the third time in his World Cup career.

Source : Blick