Alpine Ski World Cup: Odermatt only fourth: Haaser fetches home gold in the giant slalom

Ski star Marco Odermatt missed his second gold medal at the World Cup in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. The Swiss Super-G world champion had to be content with fourth place in the giant slalom on Zwölferkogel. The Austrian Raphael Haaser surprisingly secured gold. Silver and bronze went to Odermatt’s teammate Thomas Tumler and Loic Meillard. The best German was Anton Grammel in twelve.

Haaser presses forward in the final

Odermatt once again went on the slopes as a big favorite. He recently won the overall giant slalom World Cup three times in a row, plus gold at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and at the World Cup in France two years ago. This season, too, the 27-year-old has already reached three World Cup victories in his parade discipline. But this time he was left behind.

Haaser, already silver medalist in the Super-G, made another Austrian festival before more than 20,000 spectators. The 27-year-old, who has not yet won a World Cup race, went forward from fifth in the final. Norwegian Timon Haugan, which leads to half -time, fell back to seventh place.

Also grammel strong in the second round

The German starters had only competed with outsider chances. Grammel made ten places well with a courageous drive in the second round. Unlike in the first run, he was “a merciless line,” said the 26-year-old. Fabian Gratz and Jonas Stockinger took the ranks 18 and 26.

Before the closing weekend, the German team continues at the World Cup without a medal. Lena Dürr and Linus Straßer in the slaloms on Saturday and Sunday (9:45 a.m. and 1:15 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) are among the candidates on the podium.