Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt was the first to ski, but it is Austria’s Marco Schwarz with a big lead after the first run of the men’s World Championship giant slalom.

The sky was bright blue. However, the Courchevel L’Eclipse GS was in complete shade. The racing surface was solid ice and the course was long. Consequently, the demanding course set by Austrian coach Martin Kroisleitner left racers exhausted at the finish. The initial run offered a severe test of giant slalom and will produce a worthy world champion.

Schwarz skied with bib 3; he assumed the lead by the end of the second sector and increased it to the bottom. He also crossed with a significant (-0.58) advantage. Schwarz was the only racer to finish the course in under 80 seconds. Notably, Odermatt sits second and Slovenian Zan Kranjec (+0.78) is third. No other racer was within a second of Schwarz. All three skiers utilized complete transitions to pressure the ski early and gain their advantage. Schwarz, however, was the best.

Taking advantage of their coach’s course, the Austrians have three racers in the first six. Also, Switzerland has three in the top ten.

Austrian skiers are yet to win an event at these championships, two years after the team led the medal table of the worlds in Cortina, Italy, with five golds.

Defending champion Mathieu Faivre of France finished nearly four seconds off the pace.

North Americans

When the first 15 had finished, the time spread was (+3.97) and four racers finished more than three seconds behind the leader. Unfortunately, one of those racers is USA’s emerging GS star River Radamus (+3.23), who sits 20th. Radamus showed good aggression but struggled to find the ski at the top of the turn and used a significant amount of energy to stay on his race line.

Two other North Americans are inside three seconds: Stifel US Alpine athlete Tommy Ford (+2.88) 16th and Canadian Eric Read (+2.98) 17th. The final North American to ski was USA’s Brian McLaughlin (+4.60) is 30th and will be the first racer on the course for the second run. The North Americans will all start in the first 30 in the final.

First run results of the top 30 and Analysis of the fastest three and North Americans

Analysis of the fastest three and North Americans