COURCHEVEL, France (Reuters) – Marco Odermatt celebrated his second gold of the Alpine skiing world championships on Friday after winning the men’s giant slalom in a Swiss one-two with Loic Meillard that dashed Austrian hopes.
Marco Schwarz had to settle for bronze after leading the first leg for Austria, whose skiers have yet to strike gold in Courchevel and Meribel. He was only 18th fastest on the second run after mistakes at the top.
The course was set by the Austrian coach for the first leg, the second by the Swiss.
Reigning Olympic champion Odermatt, who won the downhill last Sunday, had trailed Schwarz by 0.58 after the opening run but a clean second run sent him 0.32 clear of pace-setter Meillard.
The World Cup overall leader was only the fifth male skier to win both the downhill and giant slalom at the same championships.
“I came to the finish, had to count a little bit and then I saw there were two medals today for us,” said Odermatt.
“I actually didn’t expect the win, Marco skied so well in the first run, he did some mistakes in the second run that helped me for gold.”
Odermatt said winning the downhill was still the highlight of his championships.
“Emotions in the downhill were way bigger I guess, that was a surprise for me, for everybody. The relief was as well bigger,” he said.
“Today was easier because you know you have a gold medal in your hotel room.”
Schwarz said he was happy with the bronze, his second medal of the championships after silver in combined.
“It was pretty dark, a little bit bumpy and then I lost some speed,” he said.
“The pressure was on. The last time I was in the lead was two years or more ago so I was a little bit nervous today but I think I managed it good.”
Slovenia’s Zan Kranjec, the 2022 Olympic silver medallist, had been third after the first run but made too many mistakes in the second leg and dropped to sixth.
Austria led the medals table at the 2021 championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo but has so far failed to strike gold in both men’s and women’s events in France, with only two slaloms to come this weekend.
Switzerland lead the medal table with two golds, two silvers and a bronze, with Italy and the United States second and third with two golds. Norway, Canada, France and Germany have all won one gold.
Austria is eighth in the table with three silvers and three bronze.
Defending world champion Mathieu Faivre of France, who has been having a poor season in the World Cup, finished 19th.
Compatriot Alexis Pinturault, the newly-crowned combined champion and super-G bronze medallist, was seventh.
Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Odermatt’s World Cup rival, skied out on the first run.
The gold medal was the 400th awarded in the history of the Alpine skiing championships that were first held in 1931.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Sharon Singleton and Pritha Sarkar and Christian Radnedge)
