Olympic giant slalom champion Odermatt dominates World Cup opener

Olympic giant slalom champion Marco Odermatt dominated the opening race of the men’s World Cup on Sunday in Sölden, Austria, beating the field by more than seven tenths of a second for his 12th career win.

The Swiss skier had a near-perfect first run and overcame a few errors in his second on the steep glacier in the Austrian Alps to finish 0.76 seconds ahead of Slovenian Zan Kranjec.

Henrik Kristoffersen finished 0.97 behind in third, ahead of Norwegian teammate Lucas Braathen, who moved from second after the first run to fourth.

« I was not sure [the first-run lead] was enough, it was a really big fight. The snow got worse and worse. Everyone made mistakes, » said Odermatt, who also won the race last year for the first of five GS victories on the way to his first overall title.

Trevor Philp was the top Canadian, 1.8 seconds behind Odermatt for 15th place. Fellow Canadian Erik Read finished 17th.

The race was watched by 14,000 spectators in sunny conditions under blue skies, a day after the women’s race was canceled due to rain and wet snow.