Italy's Paris wins World Cup downhill to prevent Swiss sweep, Odermatt closes in on overall title

The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 07, 2025 8:43 AM EST | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Dominik Paris prevented a Swiss expanse of the podium by winning a men's World Cup downhill contention successful Kvitfjell, Norway connected Friday, but the Italian seasoned couldn't halt Marco Odermatt from closing successful connected different wide title.

Paris claimed his record-extending 4th World Cup triumph successful Kvitfjell aft speeding down the 1994 Olympics slope successful 1 minute, 44.67 seconds, beating Odermatt by 0.32 seconds and Stefan Rogentin by 0.63.

Odermatt's second-place decorativeness each but seals different wide rubric for the 27-year-old Swiss star. The three-time defending champion's 80 contention points enactment him 440 up of Henrik Kristoffersen, who does not contention downhill oregon super-G, and 655 wide of Swiss teammate Loic Meillard.

Swiss skiers Franjo von Allmen and Alexis Monney were 4th and fifth, respectively. Their countrymen person dominated downhill races this play with 14 of 21 podium spots truthful acold taken by Swiss skiers.

"It's bully to beryllium skipper of specified a large team," Odermatt said. "The young guns, they are coming, they are pushing maine a lot. I effort to enactment connected the top."

WATCH | Paris races to victory:

Toronto's James Crawford was the apical Canadian, finishing 26th, 2.65 seconds down Paris. Brodie Seger, of North Vancouver, B.C., finished 28th, Jeffrey Read, of Canmore, Alta., placed 32nd and Raphael Lessard, of Granby, Que., was 46th.

Odermatt tin triumph a 2nd consecutive Crystal Globe successful downhill if helium wins Saturday's race. It would beryllium his archetypal triumph successful Kvitfjell.

"I tried respective times earlier successful the downhill and ne'er came amended than seventh place. A large step," said Odermatt, referring to his champion decorativeness successful Kvitfjell.

WATCH | Canada's Crawford's finishes good back:

Swiss skiers' dominating tally started successful the Norwegian edifice past twelvemonth with a triumph by Niels Hintermann. The 29-year-old Hintermann said past period helium was declared escaped of lymph node cancer.

The 35-year-old Paris won World Cup downhill races successful Kvitfjell successful 2016, 2019 and 2022, and Friday's triumph took his tally altogether to 19, joint-second connected the all-time downhill winners database with Peter Muller of Switzerland. Only Austrian skier Franz Klammer won much (25).

"It's a bully elevation for me," Paris said aft his archetypal triumph for 14 months. The Italian had lone 2 top-10 finishes this season.

Friday's contention was initially scheduled to instrumentality spot successful Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany connected Feb. 2, but that was called disconnected erstwhile fog prevented some grooming runs.

After Saturday's downhill, a super-G is scheduled for Sunday.