The last speed races on the men’s World Cup tour prior to the Finals at Sun Valley were once more exciting for the athletes fighting for glory or points and also for the viewers around the globe. They had once more the chance to watch some spectacular runs down Kvitfjell’s well-known “Olimpiabakke” course.
Some of the established leaders in the field enjoyed quite a successful weekend in Scandinavia as Italy’s veteran Dominik Paris and Swiss reigning World Champion Franjo von Allmen dominated the three speed races while the triple overall World Cup champion Marco Odermatt scored enough points in those races to claim more crystal globes.
Along with Canada's James Crawford, recent winner at Kitzbuehel and 2nd in Sunday’s Super-G, Dominik Paris became only the second “foreign” racer able to beat the Swiss team in downhill this season. The 35-year-old speed specialist was especially pleased to have excelled again for the first time since December 2023, when he was the fastest man on the “Saslong” slope at Val Gardena. “It was about time, this victory is very important to me after the mostly very frustrating months this winter,” the 2019 Super-G World Champion told the press. “My good results at Crans-Montana two weeks ago boosted my confidence and I felt ready to move again at my best level here,” he added.
“I greatly enjoyed coming here since my first visit in 2010. I like this quiet environment, the design of the course and the snow conditions. Today, I had a very aggressive run which turned out to be fast enough to win," the Italian also commented. With his nineteen triumphs in downhill, the tall Carabinieri from South Tyrol became one of the most successful specialists on the World Cup tour since 1967 along with Switzerland's former downhill World Champion Peter Mueller. Only Austria’s Ski Legend did better with 25 victories in his brilliant career.
A rather disappointed 6th in Saturday’s race, only 21/100 away from the fully Swiss podium, Paris bounced back in Sunday’s Super-G in the last shortened Super-G before the Finals in USA to celebrate his sixth triumph in Kvitfjell after a nearly flawless run. “I skied much better today, I had a great feeling on my way down being both smooth and aggressive when it mattered. It’s wonderful to end this trip with another win in that specialty,” also explained Dominik who is now a six-time winner in Kvitfjell. His last victory in Super-G goes back to the 2019 World Cup Finals in Andorra!
Franjo von Allmen was having fun to keep some pressure on Marco Odermatt in the downhill standings after his nearly perfect second race on Saturday. “I like the idea that we’ll continue to battle for the downhill cup at the Finals, it makes it more interesting for both of us,” he commented. “Today, I was able to better execute my plan after failing to do so yesterday in the first race in which I made too many mistakes, especially during some jumps,” the only 23-year-old Swiss added. Franjo won two out of the last three downhill races after Saalbach 2025!
“I knew coming to Kvitfjell that I had a good chance to ski fast as I was 5th here last season. It was my first top-10 result in downhill by then, so I had good feelings coming here. I did a solid run, without any problem. It was really fun to race today,” also commented Franjo. “It’ll be exciting at Sun Valley, even though I can’t imagine that Marco can lose the globe there – but you never know, I will again do my best there. I have nothing to lose after my amazing season.”
With his two 2nd places in downhill on slope which hosted the 1994 Winter Games, Marco Odermatt assured himself to clinch a consecutive fourth overall World Cup title three weeks before the end of the season at Sun Valley, USA, as none of his nearest rivals including Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen have a chance to score more points in the remaining six competitions scheduled at nearby Hafjell and at Sun Valley. His chances to retain the downhill globe are strong as he built up a strong lead off 83 points on his teammate von Allmen, who is obliged to win the next and last downhill of the season in Idaho to have a chance to pass him. He was especially proud of himself after the downhills since he always struggled on that slope in past years.
“To reach the podium here means a lot to me, I would have signed for it before the races,” he said afterwards with a big smile. “I’m really pleased to have been able to score a few more points than Franjo during those days as I was convinced that he could do really well on this kind of course,” Marco added. “It’s not finished before it’s finished, but things are looking positive for me so far,” also said the 27-year-old who is already sure to collect the Super-G globe at Sun Valley as his last challenger, Italy’s Mattia Casse, injured himself in training earlier in the week.
In both races, Marco came very close to beat Paris and von Allmen, but he lost precious tenths of a second in the upper part of the course. “I made too many errors to have a chance against those two great gliders, but as said, being twice on the podium is more than I had planned coming here. I am happy for Dominik as he has been trying very hard to excel again this winter, he is a great fighter. Regarding Franjo, he is really very difficult to beat when he has a clean run.”
“Our group is very strong this winter. It’s the result of the excellent team spirit which has animated us for a few years now. We exchange a lot of information and encouragement before the races, and this is the main key to our strong results,” also explained Odermatt who was seen giving a big hug to his colleague at the start before Franjo moved to the start house. With this fourth big crystal globe in a row, Odermatt equaled the performance of his former role model Pirmin Zurbriggen. On Saturday, he claimed his eighty-sixth World Cup podium since Kranjska Gora 2019.
On Sunday, the reigning Super-G World Champion missed by a mere 1/100 of a second the chance to conquer his sixth consecutive podium finish after Slovenia’s Miha Hrobat achieved his best ever result in the specialty with his 3rd place behind Paris and James “Jack” Crawford who claimed his first Super-G podium since his gold medal win at Courchevel 2023.
The fourteen national teams attending the event this season were quite pleased with the course and weather conditions as the organizers helped by hundreds of volunteers managed to provide good slopes to the racers despite some rainfalls and warmer temperature earlier in the week. All of them stay by themselves in a beautiful place situated in the upper part of the resort, allowing them to move around by skis before and after the competitions. New facilities have also been implemented for the servicemen near the hotel to simplify their working conditions. “At the end of a long season, it’s always good to come here and enjoy a quieter atmosphere than in the middle of the Alps, I like it here, people do their best to put on good races,” commented a happy Crawford before leaving the resort.
Ole Kristian Kirkerud, the president of the OC and one of the vice-presidents of Club 5 Alpine Ski Classics, was also satisfied with his second weekend of competitions at Kvitfjell. “We again faced some tough challenges, mostly because of the weather, but it surely was nice to have again fulfilled the basic expectations of the teams this weekend,” explained Kirkerud. “It was really positive for us to receive many congratulations from the trainers during the last TCM on Saturday and to see that some of the best racers in the specialty fought for victory during three days. It’s quite remarkable in reality that great champions such as Odermatt, von Allmen, Paris or Crawford were celebrating on the podiums after their races. These are winners of great classics such as Val Gardena, Wengen or Kitzbuehel, so to see them also doing well on the Olimpiabakke means a lot for all of us.”
Mr. Kirkerud, who has been leading the charge for Kvitfjell for half a dozen years now after the departure of long-time OC chairman Svein Mundal, is also very satisfied with the growing success of his other promotional project put together near the finish area for several years now – The Business Summit! He achieved quite a feat in attracting many leading businesswomen and businessmen at Kvitfjell where they meet twice a week in a huge tent of 12,000 m2 to discuss on various matters relating to management, leadership or core values in sport. “I think we welcomed nearly 800 guests from all the country who were happy to listen to some experts in their fields during those two sessions,” Ole Kristian said.
“We have the luck to also count on the assistance of some of our skiing legends such as Aksel Lund Svindal, Kjetil Andre Aamodt or Kjetil Jansrud, who are now all enjoying a very flourishing after-racing life. They are also with us when it’s time to take care of our 450 VIPs over the weekend, so all our visitors are pretty happy to come here,” added Mr. Kirkerud. “It’s a notable source of income for us and it also contributes to reinforce our visibility in Scandinavia. Our region attracts more and more foreign skiers coming from north of Germany, Denmark, England or Sweden who are delighted with the conditions they can find here until early April. The Olimpiabakke slope is only a very small part of our huge domain that presents 120 km of runs distributed on several mountains in the western part of the resort.”
The Hafjell-Kvitfjell Alpine AS (WC organizer) is working closely with the company running the two resorts – Alpinco – benefits from the strong increase of the turn-over of the group in recent years which has been improving by nearly 50% each year in the past two good winters. Alpinco is also managing the booming resort of Hafjell near Lillehammer and Oppdal, host of several World Cup races back in the late 1980s. To stay on this level of excellence, the people in charge of the events are already planning some stunning improvement near the finish area, such as the construction in the next two years of a large building of three floors that could contain enough space to locate the press-room, cabins for the TV commentators, VIP facilities, race-office, storage rooms for the safety nets, and so on!
“There still is a lot to do for us, we need to give time to time but we are optimistic about reaching very high goals,” also mentioned Ole Kristian Kirkerud who visited many of the most established World Cup organizers in recent years. “It’s very inspiring to see what some of them are doing or inventing to keep on improving their event.”
The next races at Kvitfjell are planned for the end of March 2026 in occasionstory of the World Cup Finals which already took place there back in 1996 and 2023.
Written by: Patrick Lang
