After finishing yesterday in third place in the Downhill Marco Odermatt wins the first Super-G of the season in Lake Louise. Odermatt was in a different league. He laid a perfect run to took his 13th World Cup victory.
The 25-year-old Swiss star finished 0.37 seconds ahead of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and 0.78 seconds ahead of Matthias Mayer. It is his eighth podium in his last eight World Cup races.
Odermatt has won five super-G World Cup events in his career, third-most among Swiss men, behind Pirmin Zurbriggen (10) and Didier Cuche (6).
Marco Odermatt kicked off his 2022-2023 winter season in the best possible way, taking the Men’s Giant Slalom in Sölden, finishing 3rd in the Downhill in Lake Louise, and showing today that he will be the man to beat again this year for the Overall standings.
"The revenge against Aleks was successful. My run was good from top to bottom. Everything works very well, everything fits, the material, the self-confidence, my skiing. It was one of my best Super-G's", said Odermatt.
“Both of us want to win. We are good friends and respect each other. It is great to have a rival like (Kilde). We will compete against each other for a long time”, Odermatt added.
Before today Kilde's best result at a Super G World Cup in Lake Louise was a fourth-place finish in 2017. Today's podium is his 17th in the discipline and 31st in the World Cup.
"Odermatt was strong, really strong. I had a good feeling, I lost a bit in the lower part, but that's how it is. It wasn't good enough, but it was good", Kilde said.
“We are good friends and competitors for sure. I think we fire each other up quite a bit. We are having such a good time together and competing. He is a really good competitor and could be a really good friend on site too. So, let’s have a party. He is going to be hard to beat this year. But I beat him yesterday, so if I beat him every-other chance then I am fine with that too”, Kilde added.
Matthias Mayer finished in third place in the Super-G on Sunday to claim his first podium of the season. Olympic Champion Matthias Mayer finished on the podium 22 times on the Super-G.
"It was a solid race, everything worked well again today. I had a cool run. That's something I can build on. The conditions were not easy, but most of my tactics worked out", said Mayer.
Mayer’s teammate Vincent Kriechmayr took an aggressive approach but he missed the podium finishing in fourth place.
“I'm definitely happier than yesterday, but it wasn't a clean ride. Even if I had had a dream run, I wouldn't know how to find nine tenths to beat Odermatt. It's great how he skied. We'll see if we can beat him. My speed start wasn't quite what I wanted, but I'm looking forward to Beaver Creek", said Kriechmayr.
Odermatt's triumph today was overshadowed by a serious fall by Mauro Caviezel. In the second race, after an injury break of almost two years, the 34-year-old skier from Graubünden had a spectacular fall after hitting one of the gates at high speed and hit his head on the icy slope. Caviezel was evacuated by helicopter, conscious. According to initial reports, he suffered a severe concussion. In 2021 Caviezel suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fall in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.