Junior Worlds: Odermatt Claims Incredible 5th Gold, Aline Danioth Wins Alpine Combined

Local hero Marco Odermatt made history on 6th February 2018 by taking his fifth straight Junior World Championship gold with a win in giant slalom, a title he also took in the 2016 edition.

The 20-year-old has thus won every event he competed in: downhill, super-G, alpine combined, giant slalom and the team event. While he will not compete in the remaining slalom, he has now equalled Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) for most Junior World Championship gold medals with six. Taking five gold medals in one edition, however, is a new record.

“This is incredible to me. We have celebrated every medal so far and they just kept coming. I am extremely happy with my results here at Junior Worlds. It is still a big step to World Cup level, so there is lots of work ahead of me.”

On the challenging slope in Davos, Odermatt bested Austria’s Fabio Gstrein by 0.97 seconds for the win, with Bulgaria’s Albert Popov joining them. The 20–year-old Bulgarian who trains with the German Team powered his way to third place, +1.32 seconds off the pace. After the slalom, he will travel to the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang.

The event saw 129 participants from 36 nations.

Junior World Championships action continued with the ladies’ alpine combined races. The podium was a repeat of the slalom race. Only the order was different.

Aline Danioth set the pace in the first run, a slalom, to distance herself from the rest of the field by 0.28 seconds. She took her first run advantage over the finish line in super-G to cruise to gold. It was Danioth’s third medal in Davos, following gold in the team event and bronze in slalom.

Silver went to Slovenia’s Meta Hrovat 0.56 seconds back. Hrovat, who already secured gold in slalom, will travel to the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games next.

Austria’s Franziska Gritsch secured bronze +1.16 seconds off the winning pace. It was Gritsch’s third medal in Davos following silver in super-G and slalom.

Danioth who was debating if she should start the alpine combined said: “This is just amazing. I wasn’t sure I should start because I crashed in yesterday’s super-G and felt uncomfortable going over the jump. Today’s race has given me additional confidence and really showed me I can do it. I am just super happy”.

With Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, Norway, Germany and USA, six nations finished in the top ten.

After nine medal events, Switzerland still leads the medal standings with ten medals ahead of Austria with eight and also sits atop the Marc Hodler Trophy standings which awards the best team performance.