Swiss Skiing Stars Lara Gut-Behrami and Marco Odermatt Lead Overall World Cup Rankings and Hope to Claim Big Crystal Balls

Odermatt with a clear lead

Odermatt can hardly take his third victory in the overall World Cup in a row. The 26-year-old not only dominates in the giant slalom (600 points from 6 races), but also in the super-G and downhill. He is 822 points ahead of second-placed Cyprien Sarrazin, with Manuel Feller another 15 points behind.

14 races are still planned this winter. Because Sarrazin doesn’t do any slaloms and, with the exception of two unsuccessful attempts in Alta Badia, no giant slaloms, the Frenchman actually only has four races left to overtake Odermatt – a hopeless undertaking, and not just mathematically.

Feller still has at least 10 races, 5 each giant slalom and slalom, to get close to Odermatt. However, if the man from Nidwalden doesn’t suddenly stop scoring, that probably won’t be enough either.

Crucial weeks

Things are much tighter for women. Gut-Behrami took full advantage of Mikaela Shiffrin’s absence due to injury and took the lead with 3 wins in a row. The form is right, everything seems to be going well for the Ticino woman at the moment.

The calendar for the next few weeks also seems to suit her. With 3 downhill runs and 4 Super-G, there are 7 speed races in which Gut-Behrami can continue to shine. It is still unclear whether Shiffrin will take part in racing again in the coming weeks. But even if they do, their strengths lie more in the technical disciplines. Gut-Behrami could definitely extend her lead.

So Switzerland is still a few races and weeks away from the hoped-for double victory. But dreaming seems to be allowed – because the omens haven’t been so good for a long time.

2024-02-10 21:58:24
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