SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — Marco Odermatt was in the finish area picking up the pieces after collecting his newest trophy.
Because he broke it. Good thing the Swiss standout has plenty of them.
Odermatt went to toss his giant slalom crystal globe — it's actually glass — into the air when it clanged off the medal around his neck Wednesday following the GS race at the World Cup finals. The base shattered into several shards.
“I have some pieces of glass now to share with the coaches,” Odermatt cracked. “It’s a nice story.”
Odermatt now has 13 World Cup season-long trophies — four in GS, two in downhill, three in super-G and four for capturing the overall crown.
He can afford to break a few. He's not planning on ordering a replacement trophy, either.
“It will be a nice history about it,” he said of the broken GS award.
Odermatt went into the final GS of the season with the crown already wrapped up. He finished the race runner-up to his teammate, Loic Meillard. Then, they received their hardware.
First up was the medal ceremony for the winners of the race.
Then, another ceremony to hand out trophies for the season-long standings, in which Odermatt was followed by Norwegian ski racer Henrik Kristoffersen and Meillard.
Odermatt was celebrating with his Swiss team when the accident happened.
It's not the first time Odermatt has broken a trophy. He went out to celebrate his first World Cup podium finish in 2019 and dropped the trophy.
“I have half a piece of it still at home," Odermatt said. "It’s a nice story.”
As for Wednesday's race, Meillard held on to his first-run lead and cruised to the GS win on a sun-splashed course. Meillard finished in a combined time of 2 minutes, 15.21 seconds on a warm day at Sun Valley. He beat Odermatt by 0.95 seconds, while Kristoffersen finished third.
“At the end, what's important is to push each other, try to learn from each other, to always get better year after year,” Meillard said of competing against his teammate, Odermatt.
Asked how well Odermatt is racing right now, Meillard cracked: “At the moment, I guess I’m better. But (always) he’s pretty good, yes.”
To think, Odermatt struggled to start the GS season with two “DNFs” — did not finish. He finished on the podium in the next seven races, including three wins.
“Hopefully it’s not bad luck” to break a trophy, Odermatt said with a laugh. “It was probably a little bit of a symbol that my beginning of the season was not the very best. So after recovering from that, winning another globe was incredible.”
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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Pat Graham, The Associated Press
