Marco Odermatt targeting first Alpine World Ski Championships gold - 'You have to put 100 things together'

ByNigel Chiu

Updated 07/02/2023 at 17:13 GMT

Olympic champion Marco Odermatt says he tries not to focus too much on his races in the build-up to each event at the Alpine World Ski Championships. Odermatt, who failed to finish the first run of the alpine combined on Tuesday, is competing in the three disciplines he races on the World Cup tour, the super-G, downhill and giant slalom over the next two weeks in France.

Marco Odermatt says he will need to “put 100 things together” in his bid to win gold at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel-Meribel.

Odermatt is yet to win a medal at the World Championships and failed to finish the first run of the alpine combined on Tuesday.

He had an injury scare in mid-January after hurting his knee when recovering from a near-crash in Kitzbuhel, but returned to action in Cortina d'Ampezzo with back-to-back super-G victories just over a week ago.

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“After a season like this, the goal is to be world champion after these two weeks,” Odermatt told Eurosport expert and former skiing star Tina Maze.

“It's just a single race. So many things in each race can happen. You always have to put 100 things together again to be best on the day.

“It's just important to stay focused, take it easy, I guess, not focusing on it [the event] too much because it wouldn't work, for me, so I just enjoy the time here.”

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Odermatt, who is the No. 1 men’s skier, appears to be a cool and calm character on the tour so Maze wondered if the 25-year-old ever got angry.

He said: “I think every guy is angry at some times. For sure it's not often, we can live a beautiful life, have a wonderful job, so I don't have many things to be angry about.”

The Olympic champion will compete in three more events at the World Championships – the super-G on Thursday, the downhill on Sunday and the giant slalom on February 17.

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Speaking alongside compatriot Loic Meillard, who will be one of his big rivals in the giant slalom, Odermatt says the experience of his team-mate has been helpful.

“We have been in the same team for many years now already,” he said. “Loic changed group to the slalom group so we see each other a little bit less, especially during summer.

“But now, in winter, we have a pretty similar race plan. Loic is an incredible athlete. He's probably, for me, the skier with the best technique so I can learn a lot from him.”

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