Courchevel-Méribel World Cup Finals serving as appetizer for 2023 world championships

Swiss ski racer Marco Odermatt clinched his first overall World Cup title as the Courchevel-Méribel World Cup Finals opened on Wednesday in the French Alps.

The 24-year-old rising star charged to a second place finish on the new ‘Eclipse’ course in Courchevel, France extending his overall points lead to an insurmountable 359 points. With three races remaining and 100 points awarded for a victory, Odermatt secured his first career title and is the future of Swiss ski racing.

“It’s amazing to finish this downhill season with another podium, I would have never expected it,” Odermatt said in the Courchevel finish area after the morning race. “For me, it’s a fantastic result.”

Alexander Aamodt Kilde may have come up short in his quest for a second overall title, however the versatile Norwegian skier captured the season downhill title, edging four–time champion Beat Feuz by a narrow 13 points.

“It has been such a nerve-racking day to be honest,” Kilde said. “I just wanted to commit and execute my game plan, but it was a close call for really going bad,” he said, referring to a near crash off the first jump.

“I won’t call it luck, but small margins went my way this time,” said Kilde, who also won Olympic silver and bronze medals in Beijing. “To have two globes and two (Olympic medals) has been a dream come true and I just have to keep winning races because that is what’s fun.”

Kilde’s girlfriend Mikaela Shiffrin has been on a torrid pace ever since her Beijing Olympic disappointment, winning the women’s downhill in Courchevel on Wednesday. Seeking her fourth career overall World Cup title, the 27-year-old American star extended her points lead to 156, ahead of Slovak Petra Vlhova. Three races remain to determine the women’s champion – super-G, giant slalom and slalom.

Asked if her 156-point margin is comfortable, Shiffrin quickly responded: “No, not comfortable enough.” Shiffrin could clinch the title in Thursday’s super-G, however it is more likely to come down to the two technical races this weekend.

The five-day World Cup Finals are being contested in the neighboring French Alps resorts of Courchevel and Méribel, while also serving as a tune-up for organizers of next February’s FIS Alpine Ski World Championships.

The season-ending event is taking place on the 30th anniversary of the Albertville 1992 Olympic Winter Games. Downhill and super-G races are being run on the new piste in Courchevel named ‘Eclipse,’ its finishing stretch adjacent to the 1992 Olympic ski jumping venue.

The ‘Eclipse’ downhill track boasts an average gradient of 30 percent, even more than the 27 percent of Kitzbuehel, Austria’s feared Streif course. Racers said the top section is faster with two big jumps, while the lower part is more technical and full of turns.

“I would say the course is really good for about a minute twenty, like really good, fun downhill and then it turns into a high-speed super-G with quick, weird turns and doesn’t flow as well,” said U.S. downhiller Bryce Bennett. “I guess they’re working out some kinks and the snow will obviously be better than today,” he said, referring to soft conditions due to mild March weather.

Racing shifts to nearby Méribel on Friday with the team event, giant slaloms and slaloms concluding the 2021-22 season.

Appetizer for 2023 Alpine Ski World Championships

Thirty years ago, the beauty and sparkling white snow of Courchevel and Méribel captivated the world as the neighboring French Alps resorts played a leading role during the Albertville 1992 Olympic Winter Games. Three decades later, the legacy left is inspiring, as the two Alpine towns are still hosting major international sporting competitions.

Perrine Pelen is the president of the Courchevel-Méribel World Cup Finals Organizing Committee and will also serve in a leading role at next season’s two-week world championships.

“It is the first time that FIS gave the organization of world championships to two different resorts,” said Pelen, a three-time Olympic skiing medalist, having represented her native France in Lake Placid 1980 and Sarajevo 1984. “They are just ten kilometers away from each other and if you are skiing, you take two chairlifts and you can ski from one valley to another one.

“Having the opportunity to arrange this event in these two resorts is just huge, because they each have their own proper experiences.”

During the 1992 Albertville Games, Courchevel was the setting for men’s ski jumping, while Méribel hosted both ice hockey and women’s alpine skiing events.

“For the Finals, it is the first time that Courchevel has organized a downhill, a gorgeous new course – it’s a new challenge, but with the expertise and motivation in Courchevel, we are ready.

“In Meribel, the course is not exactly the same (as Albertville 1992), but the finish area is in the same place and it’s no problem to recognize the site – we have a very nice story to tell,” Pelen noted of the ‘Roc de Fer’ course.

Pelen stresses this week’s World Cup Finals, jointly organized by Courchevel and Méribel, are an opportunity for “our teams to demonstrate their professionalism and know-how” en route to the 2023 World Championships, February 6-19, of next year.

Pelen also highlighted the longstanding winter sports and ski recreation legacy left by the Albertville 1992 Winter Games.

“The legacy is just huge – when you look at the ski resorts in the Savoy now, it is owed to Albertville 100 percent,” Pelen said. “Before the Olympic Games, it was more difficult to travel by train and drive between these different resorts

“The ski resorts developed very fast since Albertville and it gave this international image of these ski resorts. Now, we have more and more foreign tourists in our ski resorts.”

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