Well above the lot, Marco Odermatt became downhill world champion this Sunday in Courchevel. The Swiss prodigy, 25, had never won in the discipline. The winner of the last big crystal globe has relegated all the competition far away, his Norwegian dolphin Aleksander Aamodt Kilde point at 0″48 and the Canadian Cameron Alexander completes the podium at 0″89. Frenchman Maxence Muzaton was in the game for a long time before breaking down at the end and finally finishing sixth.
Starting with the first bib, Florian Schieder occupied the leader’s jump seat for a long time, with a reference time on which the defending champion Vincent Kriechmayr, among others, broke his teeth. But the Italian could not cope with the mastery of Odermatt, author of an exceptional round. Almost faultless on the Eclipse, a spectacular track. Only Kilde was able to approach him, but the 2022 Specialty Globe winner still finished within half a second, a testament to the margin the new world champion had.
The missing title
Winner of the big crystal globe in 2022, giant Olympic champion in Beijing and also brilliant in super-G for years, Odermatt had never won a single downhill in the World Cup. This is a great first! And even a great double first since he had never won a medal at the Worlds! This competition had so far failed him. Three days ago, he finished fourth in the super-G.
For the last run in the big championship of his long career, Johan Clarey, 42, who necessarily had hopes after his second place in Kitzbühel at the end of January, finished 23rd, 1″89. Far from it, like his compatriots Nils Allegre (21st, + 1″87) and Adrien Théaux (33rd, + 3″46). For the Blues, the surprise almost came from Maxence Muzaton: the Plagnard stuck to the winner’s time until halfway through the race, before crossing the line in sixth place, two tenths from the podium.