Men's Giant Slalom Soelden, Steen Olsen wins. Braathen misses the podium, Hirscher is there

Solden, 27 October 2024 – The first Alpine Ski World Cup race speaks Norwegian. The Nordics take the Rettenbach of Solden and place three athletes in the first three places, which in practice are four. Alexander's triumph Stone Olsen, who dominated both the first and second heats, winning with a reassuring and significant margin over Henrik Kristoffersen and Atle Lie Mcgrath, monopolizing the podium for Norway. And the fourth? Another Nordic, that Lucas Pine Braathen, who returned after a sabbatical year in competition and who today skis under the Brazilian flag after having defended the Norwegian colours for years. Italy also did well, obtaining two good placings in the top ten with Alex Vinatzer fifth, equalling his career best result in giant slalom, and Luca De Aliprandini, tenth at the finish line. And Marcel Hirscher? Considering the five years of inactivity he did well with the twenty-third final place and the third partial time of the second heat.  

The race

Immediately a surprise in the first heat, with the favourite, Marco Odermatt, who came down with the bib one who fell after an uncertain start, saying goodbye to the possible first victory of the season and missing the first challenge with Hirscher and Braathen. Thus, Alexander took advantage of it Steen Olsen who preceded Filip by just two hundredths Zubcic and 8 cents Henrik Kristoffersen, but in general the gaps were contained with Tumbler fourth at 42 cents and Mcgrath fifth at 50. The first nine are under a second behind, up to Radamus ninth at 92 hundredths, preceded by a good Luca De Aliprandini eighth at 76. And the big names? Lucas Braathen, with the 41, immediately showed interesting things with the nineteenth place at 1”68 and also Marcel Hirscher, with the 34, snatched the qualification from the second with the twenty-eighth time at 2”29. As for the other Italians, they qualified Vinatzer in thirteenth position and Borsotti in twenty-thirdIn the second there was a great performance by Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who seems to have never stopped skiing, and in the end recovered 15 positions to climb to the foot of the podium, where he missed out by 24 hundredths. Also Vinatzer He performed well, moving up from thirteenth to fifth place, but he could do nothing against the overwhelming Norwegian power with Steen Olsen first with 65 cents on Kristoffersen and 66 on McGrath, while Braathen is fourth at 90 hundredths. He instead risked too much Zubcic, who was in contention for the victory, but paid dearly for a mistake at the beginning of the wall. Rounding out the top ten Kranjec sixth, Haaser seventh, Feurstein eighth, caviezel ninth and De Aliprandini tenth. We were talking about Hirscher, another one who didn't take long to get back to a good level. After a five-year break, the eight-time World Cup champion, today under the Dutch flag, first snatched the qualification in the second heat and then set the third time for the twenty-third final place that will help him climb positions and bibs. Giant Ranking Solden 1 Steen Olsen 2 Kristoffersen +0.65 3 McGrath +0.66 4 Braathen +0-90 5 Vinatzer +1.10 6 Kranjec +1.26 7 Haaser +1.35 8 Feurstein +1.45 9 Caviezel +1.51 10 De Aliprandini +1.56