Hermann Maier’s message to Marco Odermatt

Marco Odermatt is 58 points behind Hermann Maier before his last race of the season on Saturday (9.00 a.m. and 12.00 p.m./live ORF 1).

The man from Salzburg raised the mark to 2,000 points in 2000. Now he wishes Odermatt “all the best for the season finale!”, as Maier wrote on his website.

“In order to collect 2,000 World Cup points in one winter, you apparently have to win just about everything! Which doesn’t really matter later in life – but opportunities to have such experiences should simply be used,” said Maier, who was then in a had celebrated ten victories in a total of 30 races without a major event.

Not yet at the zenith on the descent

In a season with the World Ski Championships in 26 races, Odermatt already achieved twelve victories. If he goes one better in his favorite discipline on Saturday, he would have broken the record for wins in one season in addition to the points record.

The Swede Ingemar Stenmark (1978/79), Maier (2000/01) and Marcel Hirscher (2017/18) have achieved 13 successes so far.

“From my point of view, Marco has not yet reached his zenith, especially in the downhill,” said Maier about the overall World Cup winner, who also took the small balls for the Super-G and giant slalom World Cup with him.

In the coming season, which will probably take place with even more races without a major event, Odermatt could then further expand their own record of points. “Of course, one very special challenge still remains: that the number of points and the current year match exactly,” said Maier, pointing out that at least the “number magic” of his record will stay with him for a long time to come.