With his solid size (1.89 m, about 94 kilos), Niels Hintermann had to force to make a little place on the first step of the podium following the outcome of a crazy descent in Kvitfjell.

Author of a magnificent descent with his bib 17, the Swiss saw the Canadian Cameron Alexander emerge with bib 39 to hurtle down the track in the same time (1:44.42).

A double event given the pedigree of the skier (he had not scored any points this winter in the World Cup) and his young age for a descender (24 years old).

Several very poorly ranked starters at world level had good performances on Friday (the German Simon Jocher, bib 44, is 7th, the Italian Guglielmo Bosca, bib 48, 9th), showing that the track and the visibility remained perfect during the two hour race.

Alexander was able to take advantage of these favorable conditions on his favorite slope: he had won a European Cup downhill (2nd world level) here in February, and it was already in Kvitfjell that he had signed the best result in 2020 his career at the world level so far (10th).

The Vancouver skier was stopped on the rise a few months later by seriously injuring his knee in Val d'Isère in December 2020, not returning to competition until the end of 2021.

Suspense for the little globe

For Niels Hintermann, the victory sounds like the end of a rebirth at 26, after having already had two podiums this winter in downhill (3rd in Val Gardena and Bormio in December).

The "boar", sweet nickname of the champion from the canton of Affoltern, had won the combined Wengen in 2017 before experiencing several difficult seasons between injuries and loss of confidence.

Swiss Niels Hintermann competes in the World Cup downhill race in Kvitfjell, March 4, 2022 Stian Lysberg Solum NTB/AFP

This is the first tied World Cup downhill victory since Austrians Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kriechmayr in Are (Sweden) in 2018. In 2014, Austrian Georg Streitberger and Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud had already shared the victory in Kvitfjell.

Jansrud, five-time Olympic medalist and 23-time winner on the world circuit, started his penultimate race on Friday (45th) and will bid farewell to competition on Saturday during the second run.

Behind the two winners of the day, the favorites piled up in a few hundredths of a second.

Olympic super-G champion Matthias Mayer of Austria competes in the World Cup downhill race in Kvitfjell, March 4, 2022. Austrian Matthias Mayer completes the podium at 12/100.

Winner of the downhill at the Beijing Olympics, the Swiss Beat Feuz is 4th at 19/100, just ahead of the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde at 20/100.

Austrian Matthias Mayer during the World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell, March 4, 2022 Stian Lysberg Solum NTB/AFP

The suspense for the small globe of the specialty remains intact as Kilde retains the lead in the classification 3 points ahead of the quadruple title holder Feuz, and 28 ahead of Mayer, two races remaining to be contested (Saturday then March 16 in Courchevel).

As often, Johan Clarey, who became Olympic vice-champion at 41 last month, is the best Frenchman and took 6th place at 57/100.

Matthieu Bailet finished 19th, Maxence Muzaton 21st, Sam Alphand 23rd for his first World Cup points, and Blaise Giezendanner 27th.

The Swiss Marco Odermatt only took 15th place at 91/100 but remains comfortably at the top of the general classification, 346 points ahead of Kilde.

© 2022 AFP