Odermatt Takes First World Cup Win In Beaver Creek

Marco Odermatt (SUI) claims Beaver Creek’s Super G, scoring his first World Cup victory in any discipline. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) came second (+0.10) and Matthias Mayer (AUT) third (+0.14) for a very close finish. Odermatt skied well on the technical course, taking the right amount of risk without compromising the speed of his run.

It’s the first World Cup win for the young Swiss talent, whose best result in Super G was last week’s 7th place in Lake Louise. His other two podiums were both achieved during last season, both in giant slalom.

"It was a perfect day for me. My run was really on the edge, but I was lucky to get until the end. I din't want to lose too much speed, I tried my best even after the mistake and here I am."

In what was an incredible run Odermatt skied what Travis Ganong called a “1 out of 100 run” - pushing the line all the way down. At one point, it resulted in a near-crash as Marco took the pizza-rather-than-french-fry-approach, but he miraculously pulled it off and skied confidently into first place. Norway’s Attacking Viking Aleksander Aamodt Kilde skied into second, just a tenth off of Marco’s time, with Austrian Matthias Mayer rounding out the podium in third. 

The course set today was a classic, more technical super-G set. For that reason, it favored the more technical super-G skiers, while the classic downhillers who excel on more downhill-like super-G sets, like Italy’s Dominik Paris, Switzerland’s Beat Feuz and Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud struggled with today’s super-G set - “too technical,” Dominik said in the finish area, followed by  some expletives. 

Kilde (NOR) also showed a very strong performance and was leading in all the splits until he made a mistake in the final section, causing him to finish second.

With perfect conditions, sunshine and hero snow prepared superbly once again by the legendary Talon Crew, Travis Ganong led four Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team athletes into the points at the Xfinity Birds of Prey World Cup in Beaver Creek, Colo.

Travis Ganong was the lone American to finish in the top-10, though he led four athletes into the top 30 on Friday. Ryan Cochran-Siegle finished tied for 18th, Steven Nyman was 24th, and Ted Ligety finished 28th from bib 64 - in what appeared would be a top-five run before Ted made a mistake into the flats and lost time.

It was a smooth run with solid and error-free skiing for Travis, who normally makes up a ton of time on the bottom, but today he was fast on the top. “The top section was normally my nemesis, but today the flow was amazing up there and the snow was really easy, reflected Travis. “I had a really good feelings on the top, then lost a little time on the bottom, but I’m super fired up to land in sixth.”

Once again the Talon Crew did an incredible job, making the track “a joy to ski,” as many guys said in the finish. “I just really had a fun and enjoyable run,” Travis said after his run. “The snow was perfect - it was money, the Talon Crew did an awesome job preparing the track as always! Anyone can win a super-G, it’s about who is willing to take the most risk and pull it off, watching Odermatt - he took way too much risk, but somehow it worked out for him and that’s tough to beat. That’s on the limit super-G, and that’s what’s fast.” Travis will bring the confidence from today’s run into tomorrow’s downhill.

Mayer continues his positive streak after winning the last Super G race in Lake Louise (CAN) and thanks to this third place, he continues leading the overall ranking with 221 points, 41 points ahead of Dominik Paris (ITA).