Swiss duo Odermatt and Gut-Behrami claim super-G success in Soldeu
Odermatt clocked one minute and 23.91 seconds to finish ahead of Austrian Marco Schwarz, at 0.29 seconds, with Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in third (+0.71).
Reigning world super-G champion James Crawford of Canada failed to finish the course, as did Austria's 2021 gold medallist Vincent Kriechmayr, who won Wednesday's downhill.
The victory was Odermatt's 12th of the season and sixth in super-G, and follows two gold medals in the giant slalom and downhill at last month's World Ski Championships in France.
Already guaranteed the overall World Cup crystal globe, Odermatt can realistically target the men's points record of 2,000 set by Maier 23 years ago in the 1999/2000 season.
The Swiss racer has now amassed 1,942 points and is the favourite for Saturday's giant slalom, where a third-place finish would see him surpass the mark set by the now-retired Austrian legend.
"I will treat this race (the giant slalom) like any other race. I will for sure celebrate today a little bit, and then try to go all in again on Saturday for the GS," Odermatt said.
"We will see how much is left in the tank. If it works, perfect. Otherwise, I have won enough."
Odermatt said he was "extremely happy" with his super-G victory.
"I was a little bit disappointed yesterday (with 15th place in the downhill) and I wanted to show another good race today.
"I wasn't sure if it was still possible to get into another race mode, get the killer instinct you really need for the super-G, but I got into this mood again, and I showed some of my best skiing.
"I would say six victories out of eight races and two other podiums is nearly perfect. It is probably the most difficult discipline we have in ski racing, to sum it up with a victory, to get this globe, is fantastic."
Swiss super-G double
In a good day for Switzerland, Odermatt's teammate Lara Gut-Behrami claimed the women's super-G title after victory in Andorra.
The reigning Olympic super-G champion clocked one minute and 26.70 seconds for the win, 0.22 seconds ahead of Italy's Federica Brignone.
Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel rounded out the podium, a further 0.25 seconds adrift.
Going into the race in the resort of Soldeu, five skiers were in a position to claim the super-G crystal globe, finally won by the 31-year-old Gut-Behrami for the fourth time in her career after previous titles in 2014, 2016 and 2021.
The Swiss racer finished just 45 points ahead of Brignone in the final super-G standings, with Mowinckel in third in a close contest with Italy's Elena Curtoni and Austrian Cornelia Huetter.
US star Mikaela Shiffrin, who has already won the overall title, finished the race 14th, 1.46 seconds behind the winner.
Recently-crowned world champion Marta Bassino came in eighth (+1.15 seconds), just behind teammate Sofia Goggia.
"It's an emotional day, the win, the globe, Nicole (Schmidhofer) quitting. I am getting older and I am getting more emotional, it's crazy. I am crying all the time but it's a nice feeling sometimes," said Gut-Behrami, for whom it was a 37th World Cup win.
"I am really happy the way I skied, it was finally the way I wanted to ski. I felt free and fast. It's really nice to end the season like that, to win a super-G to win the globe. It was intense."
