Funny outcome Sunday night on the slalom in Palisades, California. Disputed under heavy snowfall and in the fog, the penultimate slalom of the season gave rise to big surprises and its winner was decided after long deliberations by the jury: the Greek AJ Ginnis, sensation of this end of the season, had been credited with the best time at the end of the two rounds, but the 2023 vice-world champion was disqualified after analysis of the video images for having straddled a stake.
As a result, Steen Olsen signed his first victory on the world circuit at the age of 21, ahead of his compatriot Timon Haugan, 2nd at 5/100th, Clément Noël and the Bulgarian Albert Popov sharing 3rd place, 24/100th from the winner of the day. For the Frenchman, it’s a little taste of revenge a week after taking fourth place in the slalom at the World Championships in Courchevel by a handful of hundredths.
This slalom had no impact on the general classification of the World Cup, the Swiss Marco Odermatt and his Norwegian runner-up Aleksander Aamodt Kilde not having put on their skis on Sunday. Odermatt, double world champion 2023 and holder of the world number 1 big globe, has a solid lead of 386 points over Kilde with nine more events on the program.