Keystone
Marco Odermatt is one of the favorites in the World Cup Super G in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The Nidwalden carries his role with serenity.
It’s world championship. So what? Marco Odermatt is as relaxed as ever these days. The serene cannot help it. His calm and serenity leave no room for excessive nervousness and hectic pace. He takes note of the expectations, the pressure seems to roll off him.
Odermatt does not highlight the season highlight itself as special, but the conditions owed to the corona pandemic, the races without spectators, the lack of atmosphere, the non-existent House of Switzerland as a popular meeting point or the non-existent medal celebrations. “So far it doesn’t feel like a World Cup at all. It’s more like the World Cup races this winter. “
In these World Cup races, Odermatt took the next steps towards a great career that is being predicted from all sides. In the giant slalom, he refined his consistency at the highest level at the beginning of December in Santa Caterina with his first victory. Across the seasons, he has never been worse than fourth in the last eight races, five times of which he was in the top three.
Way of reason
The giant slalom is still the focus of Odermatt. With the alpine basic discipline, he has created the basis to be able to gain a foothold in the super-G and downhill with the best. Even if a highly talented person like him is hardly surprising, his development in the speed sector is nevertheless remarkable. At the age of only 23, he was involved in an area in which the veterans usually have the say.
In the descent, Odermatt also made it into the top ten with 10th place in Kitzbühel and 8th place in Garmisch. Nevertheless, he still chooses his missions carefully. This winter he contested four of the previous six races. When it comes to career planning, Odermatt and those around him don’t want to rush anything. They are sticking to the path of reason and caution for the time being and will not deviate from it even at the World Cup.
Odermatt will only decide after the first downhill training on Friday whether he will contest the race on Sunday. “If I see that I can win a medal with an exploit, I’ll be there. But if I have the impression that I can only be fifteenth, I’ll let it be. ” Refraining from starting would mean additional preparation time for the parallel race and the giant slalom in the next week. Central Swiss people don’t like to look too far ahead. “I take day after day.”
Discipline of intuition
Odermatt is further in the Super-G than on the descent – which is even more surprising because there are no training drives in these races that allow approaching, so the drivers are content with visiting the course and have to rely on their intuition.
Odermatt impressively demonstrated its intuition last winter by winning Beaver Creek. In the posh destination in the US state of Colorado, he had only contested his tenth World Cup Super-G. His appearance at the time is a symbol of his unusually rapid development in the fast disciplines. Twelve months earlier he had finished 42nd on the same slope.
This season, Odermatt caused a sensation in the last two Super-Gs as second in Kitzbühel and third in Garmisch. It is the classifications that made him a candidate for a medal for the World Championship race on Thursday. In Cortina d’Ampezzo, skiing is on a slope that is uncharted territory for all athletes with the exception of the Italians.
This uncharted territory brings an additional factor into play. Success will only be possible if you can draw up a plan within a reasonable period of time and adapt to the conditions. Odermatt believes it (also) has this ability. In our own estimation, it does not take many journeys on a slope to get used to the task.
Odermatt says it firmly and out of conviction. He is ready to put the next exclamation mark in the super-G. Incidentally, he only dealt with the unknown conditions on site at short notice. So what?
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