Marco Odermatt’s bid for history was denied not entirely by another skier, but significantly by his own loss of balance at the World Cup Finals on Saturday.
Odermatt’s run of consecutive World Cup giant slalom victories was snapped at 12, two shy of the record streak.
Countryman Loïc Meillard won the World Cup Finals GS in Saalbach, Austria, after Odermatt lost control early in his second run and skied off course.
Odermatt had the fastest first run by four tenths. In the second, live timing showed his lead was up to nearly seven tenths when he skied out 22 seconds into his run.
ALPINE SKIING: Full Results | Broadcast Schedule
“It wasn’t the pressure,” he said. “I felt very relaxed in the second run. I was a little bit more nervous, again, in the first run.
“A little bit disappointed about the result. This perfect season, which isn’t perfect now, but, yeah, that’s ski racing.”
Odermatt, a 26-year-old who had already clinched the season’s World Cup overall title, had won every World Cup GS dating to last March.
The record win streak in one discipline was 14, set by Swede Ingemar Stenmark in the GS from 1978-80.
Odermatt was also bidding to become the first Alpine skier to win every race in one season in one of the primary disciplines (GS, slalom, downhill, super-G) since countrywoman Vreni Schneider won all seven slaloms in 1988-89.
Odermatt can still make history in his final two races of this season — a super-G and downhill at the World Cup Finals next weekend.
He is currently tied with three retired legends -- Stenmark and Austrians Hermann Maier and Marcel Hirscher -- for the men’s single-season wins record of 13 across all disciplines (downhill, super-G, GS, slalom).
American Mikaela Shiffrin holds the single-season victories record for men or women with 17 in 2018-19 across all disciplines.
