KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Marco Odermatt appears all but certain to win the overall Alpine skiing World Cup title after emerging triumphant in the giant slalom race down the Slovenian slopes of Kranjska Gora.
The Swiss speedster opened up a 140-point lead over Henrik Kristoffersen after claiming his fifth giant slalom victory this season.
The Olympic champion finished 0.23 seconds ahead of Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, while Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway came third.
Norwegian rival Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who is second in the overall standings, did not participate.
The 25-year-old Odermatt now has a overall lead in the World Cup with 486 points over Kilde with five races remaining.
Only Kilde could mathematically beat Odermatt to the overall Crystal Globe but he is not competing in Slovenia this weekend, paving the way for the Swiss skier to wrap up the title after Sunday´s giant slalom.
“Sure, it is another perfect day for me. It was very warm conditions. It wasn´t easy to stay focused at the start. Everything was so soft, so it wasn´t easy to ski. So I am very happy I could win this race,” Odermatt said.
Odermatt is at 1,726 points. He ranks No. 1 in the world this season in GS and super-G and No. 3 in downhill. There are four races left this season among those disciplines, giving Odermatt a shot to break 2,000 at the World Cup Finals in Andorra.
There were 40 races in the 1999-00 season. Maier started 30 of them with 10 wins. Odermatt has started 22 races so far this season with 10 wins and 19 podiums.
Elsewhere, Mikaela Shiffrin admitted she could have not cared at all about slalom. Her focus was Friday’s giant slalom and locking up the season title in that discipline.
Yet as she approached the start gate in the early afternoon in Are, Sweden, a familiar uncomfortable nervousness fell over her heart.
Shiffrin focused, propelled herself down the course, and 50 precise seconds later, broke the Alpine skiing World Cup wins record with her 87th victory.
“I still had the same feeling in the start of this run that I have every race,” she told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
With wins on back-to-back days, Shiffrin tied and then passed Swede Ingemar Stenmark‘s record of 86 World Cup wins. Stenmark was a slalom and giant slalom star of the 1970s and ’80s and held the record since January 1982.
Shiffrin prevailed Saturday by 92 hundredths of a second over Swiss Wendy Holdener combining times from two runs. Shiffrin raced on the 12th anniversary of her World Cup debut at age 15.
Her celebration was trademark subdued. She took deep breaths, crouched and buried her head in her knees. Moments later, Swede Anna Swenn Larsson, who finished third, congratulated her.
Later on the podium, Holdener joked that she has finished in second place “25 times because of you.” Holdener has actually finished runner-up to Shiffrin in 12 World Cup races, but she summed up the reputation of quite a few excellent technical skiers over the last decade.
Only recently did Stenmark’s wins record become a target. Breaking the record is great, but not a dream come true. She said that having her family there made the day among the most memorable of her career.
