Industry News
In somewhat of a déjà vu, the men’s race at Sölden, Austria, on Sunday, October 27, also featured the favorite in bib number 1 and a surprise Swiss withdrawal from the race after inspection. Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt was given the bib no 1 in the bib ceremony on Saturday night, while his teammate Loic Meillard announced pre-race that he would not compete in the race today due to back pain. Like the women’s race on Saturday, the men’s race was an exciting event, attended by 33,000 spectators, not least of all marked by the long-awaited comebacks of Marcel Hirscher under the Dutch flag and Lucas Braathen under the Brazilian flag.
The race on Sunday was firmly in Norwegian hand, with the podium going entirely to Norway, seeing Alexander Steen Olsen in first place, Henrik Kristoffersen in second place, and Atle Lie McGrath in third place. The Norwegian dominance was even extended into fourth place, with Norwegian-turned-Brazilian Lucas Braathen in fourth place. Stifel U.S. Ski Team had a strong performance with River Radamus in 11th and Tommy Ford in 21st place.
Run 1
Marco Odermatt in bib 1 was favored to win the race, so it came as a massive shock when the first starter and Overall Crystal Globe title winner slid out on the steep mid-section of the course on the Rettenbach Glacier. With the favorite out of the race, the bets for the winner were wide open again. Odermatt was calm and collected after his race, stating, “I’m not sad. It was a great race. Maybe I was too excited, but I skied so well and felt good, so I can’t be too sad. I take something positive out of this. I am in good shape, and I skied well, and sometimes when you ski at the edge, this can happen.”
Odermatt was also not the only top skier to slide out on the same gate. Austria’s Manuel Feller and Stefan Brennsteiner, both top-ranked skiers, also slid out on that same red gate. Instead, skiing into the lead was Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen. Teammate Henrik Kristoffersen skied into third while Croatia’s Filip Zubcic sat in second place after Run 1.
River Radamus in bib 13 was strong on the top-section, showing great aggression. He lost some speed as well as part of his ski pole on the mid-section but then picked up speed again towards the bottom-section, coming in less than a second behind leader Steen Olsen. Radamus’ teammate Tommy Ford in bib 24 qualified for Run 2 in 20th place.
Marcel Hirscher’s long awaited return to Alpine skiing after five years of retirement thanks to the wildcard saw the former Austrian now Dutch skier qualify for the second run in 28th place. Not a spectacular result by the founder of Van Deer but Hirscher went into the race with the modest attitude, “I’m just gonna go down there and see how it goes.”
The other long awaited comeback came from Lucas Braathen in bib 41, new under Brazilian flag instead of the Norwegian flag after his fall out with the Norwegian Ski Association. He qualified for Run 2 in 19th place.
Run 2
In Giant Slalom, the combined time of two runs counts, and only the fastest 30 skiers qualify for Run 2. These fastest 30 skiers start in reverse order, with the slowest going first and the fastest going last. This meant Marcel Hirscher was third out of the gate for Run 2. First skier out of the gate was Sweden’s William Hansson, who set a fast pace for Run 2. It was to be the second fastest Run 2 of the day and was enough to catapult the Swede into what was ultimately 18th place.
Marcel Hirscher, as third skier, looked stronger than on Run 1 and made half a second on the top section on Hansson. The steep section was slightly less fast, and he gave back some of the time he had eeked out on the top and failed to carry the speed into the finish and skied into second 0.13 seconds behind Hansson, who was chuckling in the leader’s seat that he had managed to beat one of the most successful male skiers in the world. Hansson was finally unseated by the sixth starter, Switzerland’s Justin Murisier, who, in turn, was unseated by Norway’s Timon Haugan.
Tommy Ford was the 11th skier on Run 2 and skied in his signature aggressive style, putting down a fast second run but not fast enough to unseat Murisier, skiing into what was ultimately a 21st place.
Next up was Lucas Braathen as the 12th skier of Run 2, and the Brazilian-Norwegian put down an absolutely fantastic second run, managing to squeeze out more time on almost every turn, shooting into the lead ahead of his former teammate Haugan by 0.83 seconds. With a time of 1:04:41 minutes, it was the fastest Run 2 of the day. Braathen was celebrating and dancing in the finish area as the adoring crowd cheered for the young Brazilian, who scored the first World Cup points for Brazil, making FIS history.
River Radamus was strong on the top section but lost some time on the mid-section. The course suited him as the course for Run 2 had been set by USA’s head men’s World Cup Giant Slalom coach Fabien Munier, who joined Stifel U.S. Ski Team this season from the French team. Radamus almost slid out on the steep section but managed to recover, costing him valuable milliseconds, and, ultimately, it was a very respectable 11th place for the 26-year-old American.
Braathen’s lead seemed impossible to beat as skier after skier failed to unseat the Brazilian. Italy’s Alex Vinatzer came close but could not maintain the momentum into the bottom section and finished 0.20 seconds behind Braathen, who sat in the leader’s seat in the finish area until the fastest five skiers were up to race. Braathen beamed, “It is such a special day. I am having the best day back in the sport that I love. I learned so much from my time away, how much I loved this sport. I am back with a refound energy.”
Fifth last starter and thus fifth fastest from Run 1 was Braathen’s former teammate and club colleague Atle Lie McGrath. McGrath managed to keep his 1.18-second lead from Run 1 on Braathen on the top section but lost some on the mid-section. It was still enough though to unseat Braathen by 0.24 seconds and the two embraced in the finish area. There were no hard feelings by Braathen as he congratulated one of his best friends from his skiing career with the Norwegian team. Alte Lie McGrath, who had shaved a Tamberi-half a beard, admitted, “I was not so confident going into the race. Sölden is not my favorite race. But maybe now after being on the podium it could be. It’s been fantastic to see Lucas [Braathen]. Lucas is a Norwegian, so for me it’s four times Norway today. Maybe I will keep the Tamberi beard. It was clearly lucky for today.”
Fourth last skier Thomas Tumler from Switzerland had only 0.08-second lead on McGrath and started losing time from the top section, unable to take the lead and skiing into what was ultimately 12th place.
Third last was another Norwegian, Henrik Kristoffersen, who has a total of 30 World Cup victories to his name, two of which at Sölden. Kristoffersen has gone into the season in fantastic shape and the 30-year-old did not disappoint, snatching the lead from his teammate by the smallest margin of 0.01 seconds. McGrath could not believe his eyes and ripped off his baseball cap in frustration. There is some bad blood between Kristoffersen and the Norwegian Ski Team and he has been training separately for over five years now due to fall outs with national coaches and colleagues.
Second last was Croat Filip Zjubcic who was fast on the top section, squeezing out some more time. He skied aggressively into the steep mid-section and had the lead but lost his outside ski on a right turn, causing him to not have enough traction on the next gate, resulting in the Croat sliding into the next gate and he spun into the nets. While it looked gnarly, the 31-year-old athlete lifted his hand to signal he was okay.
After a short interruption to reset the gate Zjubcic had taken out, it was Steen Olsen’s turn. Steen Olsen has a history of being first after Run 1 but has been unable to carry that time advantage into Run 2 and has never won a Giant Slalom race until today. Kristoffersen certainly was feeling confident as he held up three fingers in the leader’s seat, implying he had the third victory in Sölden in his pocket. Steen Olsen shot out with a mere 0.08 second advantage on Kristoffersen and managed to squeeze out another few milliseconds before going into the steep mid-section. He briefly got a pole stuck in a gate but he was not to be stopped and kept expanding his lead all the way into the bottom section and finishing with a smashing 0.65 second lead ahead of Kristoffersen. Steen Olsen claimed his first career Giant Slalom World Cup victory. This meant, that all top three men came from Norway—a first in Giant Slalom in FIS World Cup history, the second time overall after an all Norwegian Super-G podium in 2015—with the fourth place going to Norwegian-turned Brazilian Lucas Braathen. It was Steen Olsen’s second career victory after claiming first place in Slalom at Palisades Tahoe in February 2023. “It was tough,” Steen Olsen admitted after the race, “It’s hard in these conditions. I felt like I tried to fight for my outside ski and keep the line. I am so happy. Three Norwegians on the podium is a dream.”
The men’s World Cup season continues in Levi, Finland, with a Slalom race on November 17. The speed men will have their debut on the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek, Colorado, on December 6-8, 2024.
