In the end, in the seventh Super-G of the season, only five hundredths of a second decided in favor of the Swiss and against Sander. After the overall World Cup and giant slalom World Cup last year, Odermatt won the crystal globe in Super-G for the first time. His closest competitor, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won the remaining two previous Super-Gs, finished third, 0.34 seconds behind Odermatt. In the special classification, the Swiss has an unassailable 188-point lead over Kilde before the only remaining race at the final in Soldeu.
“The little ball means a lot to me. Every crystal ball is the biggest thing in our sport, it shows that you have been the strongest runner throughout the season. Not on one day like at the World Cup,” said Odermatt, who had only finished fourth as a favorite in the title fights in France, in an ORF interview. The requirements in the Super-G in particular make winning the World Cup classification special: “Especially in the Super-G everything has to fit. One mistake too many and you miss the point.” Last year, Odermatt had to let Kilde go first when it came to the crystal ball.
Babinsky best Austrian
The Styrian made a few mistakes too many, but still just missed out on a podium place in the end.
13 hundredths of a second behind Kilde and 0.47 seconds behind the best time, Babinsky finished fourth as the best Austrian. Vincent Kriechmayr, who is third in the Super-G classification behind Odermatt and Kilde, finished seventh behind the surprising sixth Nico Gauer from Liechtenstein (+0.70). Daniel Danklmaier also scored World Cup points in 29th place. Andreas Ploier finished 33rd, like the rest of the Austrians, empty-handed. Because neither Marco Schwarz and Daniel Hemetsberger nor Raphael Haaser and Otmar Striedinger finished.
Babinsky sets the best result
That’s why only Babinsky was satisfied with the list of results despite just missing out on the podium. “I am happy. Even if I wasn’t perfect. But if you do everything and take risks, blunders happen. All in all, the result is good,” said the Styrian, who finished fourth, his best World Cup result. Before the World Cup, Babinsky had also finished fourth in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
At the end of the race in Aspen, Kriechmayr was no longer able to improve. “I wasn’t good enough, I had absolutely no confidence in skiing, too many mistakes,” said the former Super-G world champion. However, the Upper Austrian took his hat off to this year’s dominator in this discipline. “An athlete like Odermatt encourages you to improve yourself. I’ll try to close the gap a bit in the summer. But it will be difficult,” said Kriechmayr, because the Swiss “cleverly step on the gas”.
After the second trip to North America with races in California and Colorado, the men are now heading back across the Atlantic. For Black, for example, there is little time to shake any jet lag out of his bones. The first of two planned giant slalom events is already on Saturday in Kranjska Gora (9.30 a.m. or 12.30 p.m., live on ORF1).