GS Season Starts In Solden - Mens' Rivals Reveal Plans To Challenge Odermatt, Womens' Golden GS Generation Still Ones To Beat

There is no denying that Marco Odermatt (SUI) will line up on Sunday (1st run 10:00 CET, 2nd run 13:00) as a huge favourite to not only win his third successive men’s Audi FIS World Cup giant slalom in Sölden (AUT) but to also kick-start yet another season of dominance.

This is, after all, a skier who has won nine out of 12 Crystal Globes in the past three seasons, is gunning for a fourth consecutive overall season title and came within one second-run mistake of completing a clean-sweep of GS triumphs last season.

But his closest challengers in 2023/24 have plans to finally change the narrative. Plus a pair of huge names – with experience of beating the Swiss man – are on the comeback trail. And there is a pack of young emerging talent to consider. So, it is no wonder Odermatt is being cautious ahead of the traditional curtain-raiser.

“I hope I can show some good skiing again like I did last year but it’s always tough to compare season by season and be on the same level again,” he said. “I will try my best to win races again but for sure it won’t be easy.”

Loic Meillard (SUI), the only man not called Odermatt to win a men’s GS last season, has been identified by the champion as his biggest likely rival. A true all-rounder, Meillard finished second to Odermatt in the races for the Big Globe and the GS Globe, and was fourth in slalom and eighth in super G. He has certainly put in the time to ensure his teammate’s prediction comes true.

“You are always going to have to be fit, be ready to handle anything and to be fit in every discipline which always brings different muscles into action and different kind of movements,” explained Meillard, whose sister Melanie Meillard competes across GS and slalom on the women’s World Cup tour.

“I did some karate on the side (this summer), just to learn something new and different, have a different approach of a different sport.

“On the skis, nothing very specific, tried to continue the work we did the last few years, always go in front, accept what’s coming, try to have a clean turn from start to finish. (Be) equal on all conditions."

As for whether that is enough to beat Odermatt regularly?

“That’s a very good question,” Meillard laughed. “I showed last season that it was possible to be there and to do a lot of good times. Now it’s my job to do it again. Having him say it or not wouldn’t change my plan for this season. It’s just to go out there, enjoy every race, try to perform every time and if I manage to do that hopefully we can put him under pressure.”

Zubcic backing himself
The man who completed the GS Globe podium last season is happy to be a little more direct.

“Yeah, Odi was really good last season, amazing, I mean he had nine victories in a row. So, it’s going to be really difficult to beat him but I think I have the skills and the strength to fight with him,” Filip Zubcic (CRO) said. “And I hope I will win many races against him.

Overview of Sölden
Thousands of ski racing fans will gather in Sölden this weekend @AgenceZoom
“I feel really good ahead of Sölden. I had really good preparation and I am looking forward to racing.”

Braathen hoping for more headlines
In a turn of events that is delighting ski fans worldwide, the last skier to defeat Odermatt in Sölden will be back on the Rettenbach Glacier this weekend.

On 18 October 2020 a 20-year-old Lucas Braathen pushed Odermatt into second place becoming Sölden’s youngest ever men’s GS champion. A winner again on GS skis in late 2022, Braathen has returned to action after a year out and will receive plenty of crowd support.

It is not yet certain if the other iconic returnee will join him on Sölden’s famous slope. Marcel Hirscher has yet to reveal his opening weekend plans. But should the six-time GS Globe winner, who has been retired since 2019, repeat his Sölden triumph of 10 years ago it will surely create global headlines.

But is Odermatt ‘untouchable’?
Elsewhere, Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) may not have quite reached his customary GS standards last season, but the 2020 GS World Cup champion is always one to watch.

He won’t be the only Norwegian on the radar either. His compatriots, Alexander Steen Olsen, 23, Atle Lie McGrath, 24, and Timon Haugan, 27, lead the charge of the next generation. All three enjoyed breakout GS seasons last year, grabbing their first World Cup podiums.

Odermatt, however, is well aware that most eyes will be on him.

“For me it doesn’t feel like I am untouchable,” said the man who has won 21 out of 28 GS races in the past three seasons.

FACTS & FIGURES

• Marco Odermatt (SUI) won both the past two men’s GS World Cup races in Sölden, in 2022 and 2021 (there was no race in 2023).
• Odermatt claimed the first nine GS races of last season and was leading the 10th and final race at the World Cup Finals in Saalbach (AUT) before skiing out in run two.
• Odermatt is chasing a fourth successive GS Globe and a fourth successive overall season title.
• Odermatt has won 21/28 World Cup GS races in the past three seasons.
• Loic Meillard (SUI) won the only World Cup GS race Odermatt did not last season, the second of his career.
• Filip Zubcic (CRO) had two podium finishes last season, his first since 2021.
• Lucas Braathen (BRA) became the youngest ever men’s winner in Sölden when he triumphed in 2020, aged 20. He beat Odermatt that day by 0.05 seconds.
• Marcel Hirscher (NED) could become the oldest men’s GS winner in Sölden if he repeats his 2014 success on Sunday. Hirscher, 35, would eclipse Didier Cuche (SUI) by a matter of months.
• Hirscher has 31 GS World Cup wins to his name and six GS Crystal Globes (2012 and 2015-2019).
• Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) who won the GS Globe in 2020 and the GS World Championship gold medal in 2019, has a best finish of third in Sölden in 2022.

For the women, 22-year-old Alice Robinson (NZL) perfectly sums up the challenge facing the next generation of Alpine skiing stars as they look to challenge the established order when the women’s giant slalom kicks off the new Audi FIS World Cup season in Sölden, Austria on Saturday.

Last season the New Zealander stormed back to the sort of form that landed her three GS titles as a teenager. But come springtime she was still left looking up at Sara Hector, 32, Federica Brignone, 34, and 33-year-old Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) in the Crystal Globe standings.

“Pretty amazing to have them in their early 30s still doing so well,” Robinson acknowledged. “It goes to show the complexities of the sport and how they can use all the experience and all the knowledge that they’ve learned over all these years and it puts them in the position where they are the best.”

Gut-Behrami and Brignone shared eight World Cup GS wins equally between them last season, with the Swiss skier snatching the Globe by just 21 points. Both are gearing up for more of the same, starting in Sölden.

“Us two, we have been good many, many years,” Brignone said. “Our generation was really strong since we were young. Since we entered the World Cup we did big fights and that’s why we are still really good.”

Twelve months ago Brignone was leading after run one in Sölden before Gut-Behrami produced a masterful second effort to claim victory by a tiny 0.02-second margin.

The Italian has plans to reverse the order on the Rettenbach Glacier this time around.

“Until now I was able to get better and give myself something more in terms of results and performances (each season),” said Brignone, who registered her best ever points total in 2023/24 (1581), became the first woman to win a GS aged 33 and extended her record as Italy’s most successful female World Cup skier (27 wins).

“Every year I think I am getting better. I work on the details.”

A fourth season-opening win would push Gut-Behrami past Tina Maze (SLO) as Sölden’s most successful female skier. Hector, the reigning Olympic GS champion, is loving being part of the fight with such contemporaries.

“Three women over 30, I think that is really cool,” said the Swede who won in Jasna in January.

“I think some races (last season) I probably skied the best I ever skied and probably Lara and Federica the same. As long as you keep fit, it’s really possible to keep developing.”

As always coping with the steep pitch – 68% at it’s most fearsome – and taking that speed into the flat section will be key to victory in the Austrian Alps. Gut-Behrami and Brignone clearly know just how to do that. When you add on the presence of the great Mikaela Shiffrin, 29, you can see why the young guns do not start as favourites – even if Petra Vlhova (three podiums in her past three Sölden races) is not yet fit enough to join her long-time rival.

A win and four podium places in the seven GS races Shiffrin competed in last season before injuring her left knee represents a great set of results in most people’s book. But the fit-again Shiffrin has far better numbers to lean on as she contemplates a third Sölden crown.

In 2022/23 the USA skier won an extraordinary seven out of 10 GS races. With positive noises coming out of her camp, do not bet against her kick-starting the countdown to her 100th World Cup win in the best possible style by claiming title No.98.

Not that Robinson – and no doubt other likely contenders including the promising Thea Louise Stjernesund (NOR) and Zrinka Ljutic (CRO) – are planning on letting the old guard have it all their own way. Especially in a season where the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach (4-16 February) looms so large.

“I think I have just matured a lot and started to figure out some pieces of the puzzle that needed to be come together,” Robinson said.

“My aims for the season is to be really competitive, fighting for the wins and the podium in giant slalom and then also bringing up my super G to a high level as well. With World Champs thrown in there as well, getting a medal there would be unbelievable.”

FACTS & FIGURES

• This will be the 31st FIS World Cup in Sölden
• The course on the Rettenbach Glacier starts at an altitude of 3,038m, has a steepest gradient of 68% and sees skiers reach speeds of 65-80kmph
• A win would make Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) the most successful female skier in Sölden - currently, she is tied with Tina Maze (SLO) on three wins each
• Gut-Behrami beat Federica Brignone into second place by 0.02 seconds in Sölden in 2023 en-route to claiming her first GS Crystal Globe
• Federica Brignone (ITA) won the final two GS races of the 2023/24 season
• Brignone has finished second in three of her past five races in Sölden, having won the title in 2015
• Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) has two Sölden wins to her name, in 2014 and 2021
• Shiffrin currently has 22 GS World Cup titles and 97 across all disciplines
• Sara Hector (SWE) recorded a win (her first for two years) and three further podiums places in GS last season
• Alice Robinson (NZL) finished second four times in GS World Cups last season, including missing out by just 0.01 seconds in Soldeu, (AND)
• Robinson’s first World Cup title came in Sölden in 2019 aged 17