Paris wins last downhill of World Cup season in Norway, week after Odermatt locked up discipline title
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Italian veteran Dominik Paris beat Olympic champion Franjo von Allmen on Saturday to win the men’s downhill at the World Cup finals, a week after Marco Odermatt had locked up the season title in the discipline.
Now a record five-time downhill winner in Kvitfjell, Norway, Paris showed his class on the Olympiabakken course again as he finished 0.19 seconds ahead of von Allmen. Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr was 0.60 behind in third.
Odermatt was 0.92 off the lead in seventh, his worst result in a downhill this season, but the Swiss star had secured both the overall and downhill title last week after finishing third behind Kriechmayr in the penultimate downhill of the season in France.
“I am not disappointed, for sure not, but also for sure, I wanted to be a little faster today to finish the season on a podium,” said Odermatt, who won the downhill globe for the third straight season.
Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., finished 12th as the lone Canadian, 1.32 behind.
The second-most successful downhill skier of all time secured his 20th career downhill victory. It was the Italian’s first win of the season, coming in the downhill season finale.
Odermatt, the five-time overall champion, opened the downhill season with back-to-back wins and later added two more victories. Prior to Saturday, he had missed the podium only once in eight races, placing fourth in Crans-Montana, Switzerland in the last race before the Olympics.
“This year was my most consistent downhill season. I performed in every race, today was by far the worse race,” he said.
His dominance gave Odermatt a 191-point lead over Swiss teammate von Allmen in the downhill standings. Paris climbed to third, trailing Odermatt by 265 points.
Watch the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup men’s downhill season finale from Lillehammer, Norway.
Odermatt also added the super-G globe last weekend and is in a strong position to win the giant slalom title at the finals on Tuesday.
Saturday’s finish was Paris’s 20th downhill victory and first since winning two races within three days at the same venue in Norway a year ago.
The victory moved Paris into outright second place and one ahead of Peter Muller of Switzerland on the all-time winners list in downhill. Only Austrian great Franz Klammer won more World Cup downhills with 25.
The next men’s race at the finals is the super-G on Sunday in Lillehammer, with live coverage available on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem starting at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Cameron Alexander of North Vancouver, B.C., ended up with a time of 1:46.69 to cap his downhill season in Lillehammer.
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