Swiss ski star Odermatt secures overall and GS World Cup titles in race won by teammate Meillard

The Associated Press

· Posted: Mar 15, 2025 9:17 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

Marco Odermatt finished 2nd down Swiss teammate Loic Meillard successful a World Cup elephantine slalom Saturday to formally fastener up his 4th consecutive wide and GS titles.

The lone remaining challenger for the wide title, Henrik Kristoffersen, needed to decorativeness the race at Hafjell, Norway, good up of Odermatt to support his mathematical accidental alive, but the Norwegian finished successful 16th place.

Odermatt extended his pb to 635 points implicit Kristoffersen successful the wide standings with lone 5 events remaining.

Clinching the rubric was a formality since Kristoffersen doesn't vie successful velocity events, though the Norwegian would person the close to commencement successful super-G and downhill astatine the World Cup finals successful Sun Valley, Idaho, which statesman adjacent weekend.

The effect besides gave Odermatt an insurmountable pb successful the GS standings, wherever runner-up Kristoffersen is trailing by 106 points with lone the season-ending contention astatine the finals remaining.

Odermatt started the play with 2 DNF's successful elephantine slalom, leaving him connected zero points aft 2 races, but won 3 times successful the people of the season.

Odermatt became the sixth skier successful men's World Cup past with astatine slightest 4 wide titles, but lone the 2nd to triumph 4 successful a row. Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher won a grounds 8 consecutive titles successful 2012-19.

It has go emblematic for Odermatt to fastener up the wide rubric adjacent earlier the season-ending races astatine the World Cup finals.

His point-advantages successful the last standings lone grew implicit the years, from starring runner-up Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by 467 and 702 points, respectively, successful his archetypal 2 years arsenic wide champion, to beating Meillard by 874 points past season.

Odermatt already secured the super-G title past week and is favourite to adhd the downhill rubric arsenic well. Winning 4 globes would mean a repetition of his accomplishment from past season.

On Saturday, Meillard led a Swiss expanse of the podium, starring Odermatt by 0.14 seconds and third-place Thomas Tumler by 0.23.

River Ramadus finished seventh to lucifer his champion effect of the play from a elephantine slalom successful Beaver Creek, Colorado successful December.

World champion Raphael Haaser had a nasty clang erstwhile the Austrian straddled a gate, went airborne and landed connected his precocious back. He was attended to by medics and got up with a bloodied look earlier sliding down to the decorativeness country connected 1 ski.