Second Saturday, Odermatt took 3rd place on Sunday at 27/100 from Kristoffersen, the Austrian Stefan Brennsteiner taking 2nd place at 23/100 from the winner.

Mathematically, the Swiss prodigy must wait until next week to be officially crowned: he is 329 points ahead of his Norwegian runner-up Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, and there are four races left in the finals in Courchevel and Méribel (the victory is worth 100 points ), a downhill, a super-G, a giant and a slalom.

Swiss Marco Odermatt (right) climbs to the podium with his third place in the giant slalom at the Kranjska Gora World Cup in Slovenia on March 13, 2022. Jure Makovec AFP

But Kilde should not participate in the slalom or the giant, leaving sufficient margin to the Swiss.

Odermatt can thus already uncork the champagne and savor in advance the first big globe of his career at 24, at the end of an incredible season with so far 15 podiums including 7 victories, in addition to the giant's Olympic title.

The skier from Nidwalden has crushed the competition like a giant, he already has the little globe in his pocket, and has been able to get on the podiums in super-G and downhill with regularity.

On Sunday, however, he was once again beaten by Henrik Kristoffersen, the skier in great shape at the end of winter.

Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen walks through a gate during the first round of the Kranjska Gora giant slalom at the World Cup in Slovenia on March 13, 2022. Jure Makovec AFP

After the two slaloms of Garmisch (Germany) and the two giants of the Slovenian resort, "Kristo" (27) has won four of his five races since the return from the Beijing Games.

"It's a very good weekend for me, I'm skiing very well, regardless of the type of track in these cases," he commented.

Second in the general classification in 2016 and 2018, then the main rival of the Austrian Marcel Hirscher, the Norwegian with a volcanic character has regained his best level in the two technical disciplines.

Now 3rd at 505 points, he is going too far to challenge the big globe in Odermatt, but looks set for next season.

Like the day before, the French remained far from the best: Alexis Pinturault is 12th at 1 sec 63, Mathieu Faivre 15th at 2 sec 08, Thibaut Favrot 27th at 3 sec 41.

All three will be engaged at home on the giant of the finals next week in Méribel.

© 2022 AFP