Marco Odermatt knew that winning Olympic downhill gold was never going to be easy – but the Swiss favourite might not have known that losing it was going to be so hard.
After posting the leading time in the race on Saturday (February 7), the man who has dominated this season’s World Cup had to watch himself overtaken by eventual winner Franjo von Allmen and then silver medallist Giovanni Franzoni.
And he wasn’t even able to take consolation in bronze, as Dominik Paris knocked Odermatt off the podium for the Italian’s first-ever medal in his fifth and final Olympics.
“This obviously hurts. Finishing fourth is the worst place,” Odermatt told Swiss TV SRF afterwards.
‘Great opportunities’
“I have to try to leave it behind me as I still have two, three great opportunities here.”
Odermatt has not yet confirmed if he will take part in Monday’s team event, but he does indeed still have a chance for gold in the Super-G, and to defend his giant slalom medal from Beijing 2022.
It may be the missed chance on the downhill that stings when this generational talent looks back at Milano Cortina 2026 – but he was already finding perspective as he prepares to go again.
“A disappointing race for me, obviously, but the feeling was actually good,” Odermatt told olympics.com. “I skied like I wanted, but it was not fast enough.”
“I thought at the finish that I was really good. I do not know where I could have skied faster. That makes it a bit easier to digest, knowing that others were just faster.”
date: 2026-02-07 19:24:00