This winter, in alpine skiing for men, there is Kilde, Odermatt and the others to make up the numbers.

The thirty-year-old Norwegian, holder of the title of the small crystal globe of the specialty, already winner of the first descent of the season last week in Lake Louise (Canada), was only six hundredths ahead of the holder of the big globe and Olympic giant slalom champion in Beijing in February.

"It's been a rough week. I caught the flu in Lake Louise. It hit me really hard. I skied in sweat-wicking gear. I felt a lot better yesterday and it was fantastic. Today today I had enough strength for the two minutes I needed", commented the winner.

"It's a bit sad when it's six hundredths and you know where to look for them, but that's ski racing. I'm really happy with my second place," said Odermatt, 25, who finishes in this place for the fifth time in downhill, a specialty that still eludes him in the World Cup.

60 points difference

Like this race, the gap currently remains very tight between the two skiers since, after four events, they now have two victories each.

Odermatt indeed won in the giant of Solden (Sweden) at the start of the season in October, then in the super-G of Lake Louise last weekend, where Kilde had finished second.

Swiss Marc Odermatt during the descent of Beaver Creek in Colorado, December 3, 2022 © TOM PENNINGTON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

And it is thanks to his third place in the downhill won by the Norwegian, last week in Alberta, that the Swiss remains at the top of the general classification with 340 points against 280.

Behind this inevitable duo, the Canadian James Crawford completed the podium, 79 hundredths from the winner.

Austrians Matthias Mayer, three-time Olympic champion, and Vincent Kriechmayr, two-time world champion, placed fourth and fifth respectively.

The day after the cancellation of the first descent, due to the wind, it was therefore Kilde, winner for the fifteenth time in the World Cup, who acted as a bird of prey on the "Birds of prey", strongly swept by Éole at its summit, a little less in its second part until the finish, the conditions nevertheless getting worse for the last thirty descenders.

A track which he definitely did very well since he had won the downhill and a super-G there last year, leaving to... Odermatt the second.

Proof that their rivalry is not nascent but very persistent, with a fifth duel scheduled for Sunday, in super-G, to close this weekend in Colorado.

© 2022 AFP