“Marco is going to break Maier’s record!”

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It’s a very special win. With his 21st win in the World Cup, Marco Odermatt tied with his childhood idol Didier Cuche in the all-time ranking. The completely exuberant, exuberant cheer remains with the Nidwaldner after this renewed heroic act in the giant slalom on the “Podkoren”. Does winning eventually become a habit?

Odermatt’s answer: “Anything you can experience multiple times in life doesn’t lose its value, but it does lose its specialness. When the national anthem is played to you for the 21st time at the awards ceremony, it’s not as emotional as when you won the first World Cup.”

“I feel fresher now than last year”

Second placed Alexis Pinturault showed more emotion that day. After his overall victory in the World Cup in the 2020/21 season, the Frenchman had to go through difficult times in his former giant slalom parade discipline. At the start of the season in Sölden, the 31-year-old finished 20th. That’s why the world champion station wagon shines after his first gigantic podium finish in 14 months, as if after a victory.

At the last split, Pinturault, who was eight tenths behind after the first run, was even two hundredths ahead of Odermatt. But on the last steep slope, the Swiss got another 25 hundredths out of it. Where does the two-time Swiss athlete of the year get his strength in the closing stages of this long season? “I now feel fresher than last year around the same time,” says the world champion and Olympic champion. His explanation: “Because I won the big crystal ball last winter, I feel less pressure this season. So I probably lost less content than last year.”

Girardelli even believes in Odermatt’s rise

After the big ball, the 25-year-old exceptional athlete will most likely also defend the small giant ball. Going into the last two races he is 140 points ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen (28). That means in plain language: A third place is enough for Odermatt on Sunday in the second giant slalom in Kranjska Gora to win the third ball of this winter.

And then there was the attack on the points record of the Austrian skier Hermann Maier (50), who scored exactly 2000 points in the 1999/2000 season. Before his last four start this World Cup season, Odermatt has 1726 points.

Five-time World Cup winner Marc Girardelli stated in his column in the “Vorarlberger Nachrichten” yesterday that he does not believe the Maier mark will fall this winter. “Odermatt has not yet reached his pinnacle in competitive sport,” writes Girardelli.

The exceptional athlete is still cautious

Austrian slalom veteran Thomas Sykora (54, 9 World Cup victories) is convinced that Odermatt will break the record next week at the final in Soldeu (Andorra). “I think Marco will finish the season with 2050 points. And if he hadn’t squeezed his meniscus on the descent from Kitzbühel, he would have surpassed the Maier record even more.”

Odermatt himself is understandably coy on the issue: “If I cross the 2000 mark, it would be something very special to me. This record would probably last longer. But there’s still a long way to go for that.” However, chances are that Odermatt will also achieve this goal.

Source : Blick