Odermatt Grabs First World Title With Shocking Downhill Performance To Beat Kilde
Marco Odermatt won his first world title with a stunning performance in the men’s downhill at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships. Odermatt has largely been second best to Aleksander Aamodt Kilde on the World Cup tour in downhill, but turned the tables in the biggest race of the season to take gold. Canada’s Cameron Alexander took a surprise bronze medal.
Marco Odermatt won his first gold medal at the Alpine World Ski Championships after a sensational performance in the men’s downhill.
Having not shown any signs of challenging for top spot during this week’s training runs in Courchevel, Odermatt delivered his best skiing with a superb run.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde had to settle for his second silver medal of the championships, whilst Canada’s Cameron Alexander took a shock bronze.
It looked like there may have been an upset on the cards, as was the case in the women’s downhill which was won by Jasmine Flury, when Italy’s Florian Schieder put down a great opening marker of a 1:48.14.
The next nine skiers, including defending champion Vincent Kriechmayr, were not able to beat Schieder’s time as they struggled with the warmer temperatures.
Kriechmayr initially went second, 0.07 seconds behind, after overcoming a scary moment following his landing off the Jockeys Jump.
Home favourite and veteran Johan Clarey, who may have been taking part in his last World Championships, wasn’t able to give the French their third medal of the week as he couldn’t grasp the conditions.
𝙊𝙙𝙞! 😍
Marco Odermatt’s ✨𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕✨ run gives him the lead in the men’s downhill with a time of 1:47.05! 😱#fisalpine pic.twitter.com/SRUJ4AwTkk
— Eurosport (@eurosport) February 12, 2023
Odermatt was the next big name to come and he obliterated Schieder’s time with a near-perfect run and was particularly strong on the technical lower turns to take the lead by a huge 1.09 seconds.
The current overall World Cup leader knew it was good as he let out multiple roars when he saw his time and was full of adrenaline.
New super-G champion James Crawford slotted into second, but was still 1.01 seconds away from Odermatt so attention turned to Kilde.
Odermatt could barely watch when Kilde used his traditional big skating strides out of the gate to take the green light in the first sector by 0.20 seconds.
However, the Norwegian slowly lost time down the hill and had to settle for silver, 0.48 seconds off the pace.
The race for gold may have been over but the other medals were still there for the taking.
Canada’s Alexander, who was 20th out of the gate, was clearly buoyed with confidence after seeing his team-mate Crawford win gold on Wednesday and likely took advantage of course reports to take a shock bronze medal.
It bumped Crawford out of the podium places and was by far Alexander’s best performance of the season, having only finished as high as 12th on the World Cup tour
Austria’s Marco Schwarz is one of the top technical skiers but was fastest in the final training run and showed it was not a one-off because he went fourth, just 0.04 of a second away from a medal.
Justin Murisier and Maxence Muzaton both appeared to be challenging for the medals mid-way through their runs but lost time on the final part of the course.
There is a day off on Monday, before the World Championships resume on Tuesday with the team parallel slalom, which will feature Great Britain.
