Lucas Pinheiro Braathen won the season-opening giant slalom in Sölden on Sunday, his third straight World Cup win in the discipline. Loïc Meillard took second place, a hundredth of a second ahead of Marco Odermatt.
Same step, one winter later
The Brazilian ended last winter with two wins, in Kranjska Gora and then in Hafjell. He opened this one with a third. Counting his Olympic title in Bormio in February, he has won his last four giant slaloms.
Leading after the first run, he managed the second, posting only the tenth-fastest time. His margin held: 0.48 ahead of Loïc Meillard at the finish. It is his ninth World Cup win and his fifth in giant slalom.
Pinheiro Braathen had already won in Sölden, in 2020, racing for Norway. This time, it was the Brazilian flag flying over the Rettenbach glacier.
Odermatt, a hundredth behind Meillard
Loïc Meillard had never reached the podium in Sölden. His best result was fifth, in 2020. On Sunday he finished second, a hundredth ahead of Marco Odermatt.
A hundredth, again. On Saturday, Paula Moltzan had beaten Lara Colturi by the same margin. Odermatt claimed his fifth podium in Sölden, but he stays on three wins here. The fourth, which would have matched Ted Ligety’s record, will have to wait.
The afternoon climbers
The setting had changed since Saturday. It was 1 °C at the start in the morning and 5 °C at the finish of the second run, under a heavier sky, according to FIS. The snow stayed hard.
Raphael Haaser posted the fastest second run. Twentieth in the morning, the Austrian finished fifth, 15 places higher. River Radamus had the second-fastest run of the afternoon and climbed from 15th to fourth.
The American is chasing a fine lineage. Bode Miller won here in 2003 and 2004, Ted Ligety four times, the last in 2015. No American man has stood on the Sölden podium since. Radamus matched his country’s best result in that time: Tommy Ford’s fourth place in 2019.
Eduard Hallberg finally finished a giant slalom. The Finn had started seven in the discipline without reaching the finish. Twenty-sixth after the first run with bib 55, he ended 16th. A good sign, three weeks before the Levi slalom.
Setbacks for Austria and Norway
Marco Schwarz, starting third, crashed in the first run. Atle Lie McGrath, fifth in the morning, did not finish the second.
On Saturday, the women’s giant slalom. Patient Paula Moltzan wins by a hundredth
Levi, slaloms on 14 and 15 November. Levi waits for the cold