Marco Odermatt was still a five-year-old when his father first met Swiss skiing great Pirmin Zurbriggen in 2002.
Walter Odermatt was thinking about starting a ski school and exchanged ideas with Zurbriggen, the 1988 Olympic downhill and four-time world champion, who had set up an academy for talented skiers after his retirement.
On Friday, Walter Odermatt wiped away tears when he and his wife, Priska Odermatt, witnessed their son win a giant slalom to become the first Swiss man since Zurbriggen 36 years ago to earn two gold medals at the same FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.
Photo: AFP
Zurbriggen won the super-G and downhill at his home world championships in Crans-Montana in 1987.
Marco Odermatt’s victory came five days after he was the surprise winner of the downhill.
“Another perfect day for me,” said Marco Odermatt, who had not won a medal in his eight previous world championship races, after winning five junior word titles in 2018.
Photo: Reuters
He called winning the giant slalom “very different” from his downhill victory — which marked his first victory in that discipline.
“The emotions in the downhill were way bigger. That was a surprise for me, for everybody,” he said. “Now I had a gold medal in my room. That made it easier today.”
Marco Odermatt, who won the giant slalom at last year’s Beijing Winter Olympics, was second after the opening run, but beat Swiss teammate Loic Meillard by 0.32 seconds.
“The double victory made it even more special,” Marco Odermatt said.
First-run leader Marco Schwarz of Austria finished 0.40 seconds behind to take the bronze medal.
“I actually didn’t expect to win,” Marco Odermatt said. “[Schwarz] skied so well in the first run. He did some mistakes in the second. That helped me for gold.”
Many fans were waving Swiss flags in the stands and chanted “Odi, Odi” when Marco Odermatt won.
“It’s amazing. So many great Swiss fans here, family, friends,” Marco Odermatt said. “For me as a Swiss it’s nearly a home race.”
He has been dominating giant slalom on the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup circuit, winning four of the five events he competed in this season, and is well on his way to successfully defending the overall World Cup title that he won last year.
Marco Odermatt was a big favorite for gold in giant slalom, but found himself 0.58 seconds behind Schwarz after the first run.
A combination of slippery ice and grippy snow made the race on the shady L’Eclipse course challenging. Schwarz had a clean first run throughout, but gained the most time on his rivals in the final section.
Marco Odermatt was also not flawless in the second run on a course set by Helmuth Krug, an Austrian coach working for the Swiss team.
“Our coach set the course in second run and set the way, and we delivered and that’s incredible,” Marco Odermatt said. “It was a solid run, but not maybe the best one, so I needed [Schwarz’s mistakes] to help me.”
Schwarz made two costly errors in the middle section and needed almost a second more than Marco Odermatt to complete his run.
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