Swiss Marco Odermatt mathematically clinched a repeat Alpine skiing World Cup overall title and has a chance to break the men’s record for most points in a single season.
Odermatt, 25, wrapped up the biggest annual prize in ski racing by winning a giant slalom on Saturday in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
There are five races left in the 38-race season, including another GS in Kranjska Gora on Sunday, but Odermatt increased his lead over his closest challenger to an insurmountable 486 points. A race winner receives 100 points on a descending scale through the 30th-place finisher.
Since Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Odermatt’s closest pursuer, is skipping this weekend’s races, he cannot make up the gap on Odermatt even if he enters and wins all four of next week’s events at the World Cup Finals. Kilde is a downhill and super-G specialist and has never raced a World Cup slalom.
Last year, Odermatt became the youngest man to win the overall since Austrian Marcel Hirscher won the second of his record eight in a row in 2013.
Many believe Odermatt can have a streak that can rival the retired Hirscher’s.
Last year, he won the Olympic GS. This year, he won the world championships downhill and GS, showcasing a combination of speed and technical talent that no other male skier can currently rival.
It is reminiscent of Austrian Hermann Maier, who won world titles in the downhill, super-G and GS. In 2000, Maier set a then-record 2,000 points in one World Cup season. While women have surpassed that (Tina Maze and Mikaela Shiffrin), it remains the men’s record.
