Odermatt begins Super G Globe defence with victory at Copper Mountain as Kilde returns

Marco Odermatt (SUI/Stöckli) began the defence of his Super G Crystal Globe with victory in the speed season opener at Copper Mountain on Thursday.

Odermatt is attempting to become the third man in history to win four consecutive Super G Crystal Globes after Pirmin Zurbriggen (SUI) achieved the feat between 1986/87 and 1989/90, and Hermann Maier (AUT) did the same between 1997/98 and 2000/01.

And the Swiss legend made the perfect start in his quest in Colorado, taming a course which got the better of the early skiers who struggled to find the right line.

Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT/Head) in bib 7 appeared to have found the winning recipe when he glided calmly down with minimal errors, peppering moments of aggression into an intelligent run. When he crossed the line, it was felt he had finished in a time that was tough to beat - and so it proved for all but Odermatt.

The 28-year-old does not deal in mere moments of aggression, and threw himself down the track from the outset before settling into a trademark rhythm. Though Odermatt lost some time near the bottom, he made it up in the final two turns to cross the line in a time of 1:07.70, eight hundredths of a second faster than Kriechmayr.

Second-place Kriechmayr led an impressive Austrian charge, with Raphael Haaser (AUT/Atomic) coming third (+0.13) and Stefan Babinsky (AUT/Head) finishing fourth (+0.39).

"It's tough to say, obviously I trained a lot during the summer," Odermatt said when asked about stepping up from the outset of the new season. "You're never done, you always have to continue with the hard work. It's just great that I can start the season like this."

Asked whether his Crystal Globe gave him confidence coming into this campaign, Odermatt said: "A lot, but also pressure. I mean, when you've won the Globe you want to win the Globe again.

"In the end you have to take it race by race, the season is long and there are so many good athletes.

"Everyone wants to win so you have to attack every race again from the beginning."

For Kriechmayr, who finished third in the Super G standings last season, it was a solid start to proceedings in the United States.

"I'm pretty happy with my skiing today," he said.

"We knew this slope pretty well, training here every here. It was a pretty nice race. It changed a little bit with the visibility, I think that at the beginning we had some better light than the athletes behind us. Pretty nice to be here, pretty nice to have some races here. I hope we also have some races here next year."

Haaser said: "I'm really happy to start the season with a podium but I think there is plenty of room to improve, especially at the top part so I have to keep on working."

Though it is still early in the season, there were some struggles for the normally dominant Swiss team, with Stefan Rogentin (SUI/Fischer) and Franjo Von Allmen (SUI/Head) coming seventh and ninth respectively, and Alexis Monney (SUI/Stöckli) the next best in tied-20th place.

'Dream come true'

Four places behind Monney was the skier who got arguably the biggest cheer of the day.

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR/Atomic) was skiing competitively for the first time in nearly 700 days, having injured himself in a big crash at the end of the Wengen Downhill in January 2024.

The 33-year-old had endured 20 months of rehab and illness to take his place in the start gate at Copper Mountain, and all watching - including fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) - held their collective breaths.

While nobody was expecting Kilde to usurp the peerless Odermatt at the first time of asking, he raced bravely to finish a mere 1.25 seconds behind his victorious Swiss rival.

"Nerve-wracking," was his response to how his run felt. "It was amazing being out and actually having a good feeling on my skis and knowing that I can push even more.

"It's just one or two turns I could have done a little better but in my plan I did really well.

"Also having Mikaela in the finish area was a dream come true."

An emotional Shiffrin said it was his "greatest victory" just to start Thursday's race.

"It was a nerve-wracking day and this has taken so much work from him and his team and everybody around him," the Alpine legend said.

"To see him in the start gate was the greatest victory for all of us. It's just really hard to explain how much that takes."