Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt kicked off the World Cup super-G season with a Thanksgiving victory at Copper Mountain on Thursday, while Alexander Aamodt Kilde abandoned his fiancee Mikaela Shiffrin to tears, returning after an almost two-year break.
Odermatt has already won his first giant slalom – in Soelden in the Austrian Alps last month – in an ominous start to the season for the world's top skier ahead of the Cortina Olympics in Milan in February.
The Colorado Circuit hosted the men's World Cup race for only the second time, after 1975-76, and it was the scene for another strong run by Odermatt, who still needed to make up ground in the final stretch to pass Vincent Kriechmayr and win by 0.08 seconds.
This denied Austria a clear victory, with Rafael Haaser a further 0.05 behind in third and Stefan Babinski finishing fourth.
Odermatt, the reigning overall champion, has won the Crystal Globe for the season's super-G title the past three years.
For much of that time, Kield – the 2020 overall champion and winner of 21 World Cup races – has been sidelined by the effects of injuries sustained during competition. horrific downhill accident in January 2024.
Almost 700 days later, Kield was back in the race – and it was too much for Shiffrin, the US ski great, who was in the crowd crying as he crossed the finish line, 1.25 seconds behind Odermatt.
Kield, 33, finished in 24th place and was hugged tightly by an emotional Shiffrin minutes after descending the hill. She later photographed Kilde with Odermatt, who congratulated the Norwegian on his return to competition.
Source underwent surgery for a serious cut and nerve damage to his right calf and torn two ligaments in his shoulder after an accident on the Lauberhorn downhill classic in Wengen. He has since said his leg will never be the same and that his shoulder has limited movement.
Against this backdrop, Kilde put in an encouraging performance at a track that is well known to most drivers, having been frequented as a training ground by all the top teams in recent years.
It was the first of nine super-Gs in a season interrupted by the Olympics. A second race will take place next month at Beaver Creek in the USA.
It was Odermatt's 47th World Cup victory and 16th super-G.
According to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, Odermatt finished 26th on the super-G podium, tied for third with Norway's Kjetil Jansrud on the men's all-time list behind Hermann Mayer and Axel Lund Svindal.
