French alpine skier Alexis Pinturault gave himself the best gift for his 30th birthday. Today he won the giant slalom of the Alpine Skiing World Cup and won the Big Crystal Globe and the Small Crystal Globe in the giant Slalom ahead of schedule. The last time a French representative won the World Cup was in 1997, when Luc Alphan beat his opponent Kjetil Andre Amodt (Norway) by 34 points.
Thanks to the victory in the last giant of the season, Pinturo was out of reach for his main rival. Swiss Marco Odermatt, who had been leading the giant slalom until today’s race and was 31 points behind in the overall standings, finished the giant slalom in 11th place. On the eve of the last slalom, Pinturo is ahead of Odermatt by 103 points, and you can get a maximum of 100 points for winning the race.
Final standings of the Alpine Skiing World Cup in giant slalom (men)
1. Alexi Pinturault (France) – 700
2. Marco Odermatt (Switzerland) – 649
3. Filip Zubcic (Croatia) – 606
4. Loic Meillard (Switzerland) – 393
5. Mathieu Fevre (France) – 378
Alpine Skiing World Cup Overall Standings (Men)
1. Alexi Pinturault (France) – 1200
2. Marco Odermatt (Switzerland) – 1093
3. Marko Schwartz (Austria) – 774
4. Loic Meillard (Switzerland) – 760
5. Filip Zubcic (Croatia) – 744
Alexi has always dreamed of a “Big Crystal Globe”. For a long time, he remained in the shadow of the great Austrian Marcel Hirscher, an eight-time World Cup winner in the overall standings. Alexi had everything he needed to win the World Cup for the first time last year, but the season was interrupted due to the coronavirus, as a result, the Norwegian Alexander Aamodt Kilde won the World Cup. After an ambiguous World Championship (silver in combination, bronze in supergiant, derailment in giant) Marco Odermatt started to catch up with Pinturo. But due to the cancellation of the downhill and the supergiant in Lenzerheide due to the weather, Pinturo got the advantage and took advantage of it.
Before Pinturault, only three French representatives had won the World Cup overall: Jean-Claude Killy (1967, 1968), Luc Alphand (1997) and Michel Jacot (1970).
“I felt very tired after the World Cup and I have been fighting with myself for the last few weeks. After the race in Kranjska Gora, I was depressed. And Marco was showing great results, and I felt the pressure. Today it was obvious that I needed to win. But the pressure on me was even greater than in Kranjska Gora, ” said the happy Frenchman.
Marco Odermatt was frankly unlucky with the cancellation of the competition. At the beginning of the season, he missed the parallel race in Lech at the beginning of the season due to the coronavirus. Then, during the season, two downhill races and one supergiant were canceled (the downhill in Saalbach and two races at the finals did not take place), in the first downhill in Kitzbuhel, the results were counted after the start of 30 participants, Odermatt then did not have time to start. But today, Marco missed out on the “Small Crystal Globe” in the giant without outside interference: he made a mistake in the first attempt and could not compensate for the lag in the second race. And Alexis Pinturault was great. The Swiss finished the season in second place overall and in the slalom standings, and something suggests that he will win more than one World Cup.
