Alpine star Marco Odermatt clinches fourth straight overall World Cup title
Marco Odermatt clinched the men's overall and giant slalom World Cup Alpine skiing crystal globes for the fourth year in a row on Saturday after finishing second in a Swiss podium sweep.
Compatriot Loic Meillard was the winner of the penultimate giant slalom of the season in Hafjell, Norway, with Thomas Tumler finishing third.
Odermatt, 27, had already secured the super-G globe for the third year in a row and is the runaway favorite to also clinch the downhill title at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, next week.
Odermatt now has 1,596 points in the overall standings, 635 more than closest Norwegian rival Henrik Kristoffersen — only 16th on home snow on Saturday — with only 500 points still available to be won.
The overall title was already effectively a formality since Kristoffersen does not do the speed events, although he had the option at the finals.
The Swiss is only the third Alpine skier to win four overall titles in a row after Austria's Annemarie Moser-Proell and Marcel Hirscher.
"It's unbelievable, two more globes on my side," said Odermatt after finishing 0.14 of a second slower than Meillard to go 106 points clear of Kristoffersen.
"The big one, I already felt like I had it but the GS one was still a big fight with Henrik and he skied so good in Kranjska Gora and my GS shape is probably not on the very best level like I skied last year.
"So I'm so happy with the second place today."
Odermatt said the GS globe was a different experience this year, with two blanks at the start of the season after 12 previous wins in a row left him having to catch up.
"To win this globe, with this little bumpy road, is amazing," he said, adding he was looking forward to enjoying the World Cup finals without pressure.
"It's definitely a different kind of skiing if you know you are super close to the globe but not done it yet, there is no space for error," he added.
"It helps a lot to have this GS globe in the pocket and just focus now on the last one in downhill."
Odermatt is set to be the star of the men's Alpine events at next year's Milano-Cortina Olympics, with the Swiss already an Olympic gold medalist in giant slalom in 2022 and triple world champion in giant slalom (2023), super-G (2025) and downhill (2023).
Giant slalom world champion Raphael Haaser of Austria crashed heavily but was able to stand up and ski to the finish area.
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