Odermatt edges Kriechmayr to win Copper Mountain World Cup super-G / Photo: EZRA SHAW - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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Odermatt edges Kriechmayr to win Copper Mountain World Cup super-G
Unstoppable Marco Odermatt won the first World Cup super-G of the season on Thursday, edging Vincent Kriechmayr by eight-hundredths of a second to snatch the victory at Copper Mountain, Colorado.
Odermatt, the four-time defending World Cup overall champion, clocked 1min 07.70sec to add a victory in the first speed event of the season to his season-opening giant slalom win in Soelden last month.
The 28-year-old Swiss underscored his status as the man to beat in a 2025-26 campaign geared toward the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.
Austria's Kriechmayr, starting seventh, had set a target with a storming run in 1:07.78.
But Odermatt -- who collected the super-G, giant slalom and downhill titles last season -- wouldn't be denied, surging into first with a near flawless run.
Austrian Raphael Haaser was third, 0.13sec behind Odermatt, with compatriot Stefan Babinsky fourth.
Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde made an emotional return from a near two-year injury absence with a run that put him 1.25sec behind Odermatt -- tied for 24th.
The 2020 overall World Cup winner and 2023 world championships silver medallist in super-G and downhill, hadn't raced since a serious fall at Wengen in January 2024.
Kilde underwent multiple surgeries on leg and shoulder injuries then after resuming training had to undergo a further procedure due to an infection that developed into sepsis.
The 33-year-old had announced this week he was ready to race after two years that felt "like a lifetime".
The alpine World Cup circuit is back at Copper Mountain this year for the first time since 2001. Men will race a giant slalom on Friday before women's giant slalom and slalom races at the weekend.
X.Gamal--CdE
