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After twelve years of waiting, Marco Odermatt redeemed the ski fans and became the first Swiss since Carlo Janka to win the overall World Cup. The impressive way of the Nidwaldner to the big crystal ball.
In January 2019, it dawned on the great Marcel Hirscher immediately following his eighth triumph on the Chuenisbärgli in Adelboden. “He can be overall World Cup winner, Olympic champion – anything he wants,” praises Austria’s Marco Odermatt to the skies. There is probably no nicer compliment for a 21-year-old.
And yet father and sponsor Walter Odermatt wants nothing to do with it: “Hirscher says what the Swiss want to hear. The talk of the Olympics and the overall World Cup is nonsense.” nonsense!
Just over three years later, Hirscher’s words turn out to be an almost exact prognosis. Within weeks, Odermatt gilded his career at the age of 24 and followed the Olympic victory in Beijing with a triumph in the overall World Cup. Early and by a large margin. Whether giant slalom, super-G or downhill – wherever he competes, Odermatt is one of the best in his field in the current season, but also over his entire career. A review.
Rain of gold for the juniors
Odermatt showed his huge potential early on, already at the tender age of 18 he really drew attention to himself for the first time. In Sochi he crowned himself the giant slalom world champion, and in the Super-G he won bronze. As a reward, Odermatt is allowed to compete in the giant slalom at the season finale in St. Moritz and celebrates his World Cup debut in March 2016.
Two years later he wrote skiing history at the home Junior World Championships in Davos and sensationally won five gold medals, which no one before him had achieved. In the World Cup, the 20-year-old does not do it right away, in seven giant slaloms he never makes it into the decisive second run. However, at the 2018 World Cup final in Are, where he is eligible to compete as a five-time Junior World Champion, Odermatt amazes with 11th place in the Super-G and 12th place in the downhill.
The breakthrough in the World Cup
Odermatt quickly established himself among the best in the world, and in 2019 he made his breakthrough at the highest level. In March he climbed onto the podium for the first time in third place in the Kranjska Gora giant slalom, and in December the exceptional performer celebrated his first World Cup victory in the Beaver Creek Super-G.
Due to bad luck with injuries, he then has to wait a year and a day before winning his second race at the highest level. The giant slalom triumph in Santa Caterina is very important, as Odermatt is the first Swiss winner since Carlo Janka in 2011.
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Already traded as a co-favourite, the Nidwaldner will then have to go through the bottom at the 2021 World Cup in Cortina. After 11th place in the Super-G and the thankless 4th place in the downhill, the negative climax followed with the failure in the giant slalom – of all things in the discipline in which the Swiss had never been worse than fourth in the entire winter. “This is definitely the biggest disappointment of my career,” the frustration is great followingwards.
The incredible 2021/22 season
Odermatt quickly got over the setback. In March he scores his 3rd and 4th World Cup victories and becomes Alexis Pinturault’s biggest challenger in the fight for the big crystal globe. The duel will only be decided at the World Cup final in Lenzerheide, with Odermatt having bad luck due to the weather-related cancellation of the Downhill and Super-G. Both in the overall and in the giant slalom World Cup, in the end only the Frenchman stands in front of the sun. Still.
Because following the summer break, there’s no longer a chance once morest Odermatt. Especially in giant slalom, the Swiss dominates his competitors at will, the performances in the downhills are also amazing, where he made it onto the podium for the first time in the World Cup in December in Bormio as second. The high flight of the Swiss athlete of the year 2021 only really begins in January.
As the first local since Marc Berthod in 2008, he triumphed in the giant on the Chuenisbärgli in Adelboden, less than a week later he shone on the Lauberhorn with victory in the Super-G and second place in the shortened downhill. Just a week later, he finished second in the downhill from Kitzbühel together with Beat Feuz for the first Swiss double victory in 30 years. And at the Olympic Games in Beijing, Odermatt did not let himself be thrown off course, despite the dampening down in Downhill and Super-G. In the giant slalom he withstands the enormous pressure and goes to gold.
Entry in the history books
As the newly crowned Olympic champion, Odermatt continues his performances and crowns the extraordinary season even before the World Cup final in Courchevel. Already in the third to last giant slalom he secured the small crystal globe, victory in the overall World Cup can only be mathematically taken away from him following the penultimate giant slalom of the winter. Odermatt cleared the last doubts on Wednesday with an amazing 2nd place in the last descent of the season.
After Peter Lüscher in 1979, Pirmin Zumachen (four times between 1984 and 1990), Paul Accola in 1992 and Carlo Janka in 2010, Odermatt was only the fifth Swiss to win the big crystal globe – and thus proved his own father a lie. Hirscher, on the other hand, who for his part is the record holder thanks to eight large crystal balls, predicts Odermatt’s dominance early on. And at the moment it is not foreseeable when and why this should be demolished once more so quickly.
