The top favorite delivered in the first of three races at the 58th Saslong Classic: Marco Odermatt was in a class of his own in Thursday's sprint downhill, leading a Swiss double victory ahead of his teammate Franjo von Allmen.

Odermatt kept his cool in the shortened downhill, which had to be postponed and interrupted several times due to fog, and claimed his 50th World Cup victory. This puts the 28-year-old Swiss skier on a par with the legendary Alberto Tomba in terms of victories. With his first place finish, Odermatt also impressively demonstrated his dominance in the supreme discipline of alpine skiing: just a few weeks ago, the overall World Cup leader was also unbeatable in the only downhill race of the winter so far in Beaver Creek.

Behind Odermatt, downhill world champion Franjo von Allmen completed the Swiss double victory. The 24-year-old missed out on a possible best time with a sloppy start and was one and a half tenths behind his compatriot at the finish. Remarkably, the top two in the sprint downhill are the same skiers as in the 2024 downhill classic – Odermatt also beat von Allmen back then.

Strong Swiss and Italian performances

Local favorite Dominik Paris from Ultimo/Ulten completed the podium in third place. The winner of the 2023 Val Gardena/Gröden downhill race was even able to afford a moment of carelessness at the Ciaslat entrance during his run – without this mistake, the South Tyrolean could even have achieved a second triumph at Saslong. For Paris, it was his fourth podium finish overall in his home race.

In front of a home crowd, Paris along with the entire Italian speed team put in a convincing performance. With Florian Schieder (6th) from Castelrotto/Kastelruth, Mattia Casse (7th), Giovanni Franzoni (8th), Christof Innerhofer (11th – one day after his 41st birthday) from Gais, and Benjamin Jacques Alliod (14th), five other “Azzurri” finished in the top 15. In fact, the sprint downhill was dominated by two nations: ten of the top 15 racers came from either Switzerland or Italy.

On Friday, the race week in Val Gardena/Gröden continues with the traditional super-G. The start is at 11:45 am.

The complete results list of the sprint downhill can be found here.