Men’s Alpine season review: Kristoffersen and new Swiss stars shine, but Odermatt remains quadruple king

How long is it possible to maintain perfection?

This was the question facing Marco Odermatt (SUI/Stöckli) as he came into this winter, having produced two straight seasons of utter dominance, winning the Overall, GS, Super G and Downhill Crystal Globes in both. 

With so many variables affecting Alpine racers – fitness and bad luck foremost among them  – surely another term at this heady level was unlikely to be sustainable.

Odermatt himself certainly thought so. He started his defence slowly, DNFing in the opening GS races. Maybe something had to give?

“After not getting into the finish for the first two races, I thought maybe this Globe is already gone for this year,” he admitted.

But as he said at the end of the year in typical understated style, as he was once again handed four title trophies, “I came back very strong”.

Odermatt is a generational athlete, with years left in his prime, who can kick on to make further history. The way he did it this season was among his most impressive achievements.

Elsewhere, the resilience of Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer) was on show as he won the Slalom globe – the fourth of his storied career. He pushed Odermatt all the way in the GS, too. 

A glimpse of the future of skiing, and the challenges Odermatt will have to overcome to stay at the top, was also revealed – mainly from inside his own squad.

Loic Meillard (SUI/Rossignol) was supercharged, while Franjo von Allmen (SUI/Head) and Alexis Monney (SUI/ Stöckli) emerged as major new talents.

Odi battles for fourth straight GS globe
Odermatt entered the season with stats on his side. Two seasons ago, he’d broke the men’s Overall season points record. Last year, he’d gained 1947 points, won nine GS races, and finished 874 points clear in the overall Crystal Globe.

 His supremacy is built on versatility: while he has been a fine GS skier for years, he raised his game so that his Super G and, more latterly Downhill abilities, became world-beating. No other athlete is so consistent across the disciplines.

Stay fit, and the Overall Globe looked likely to remain in his possession. But retaining the three individual globes would surely be tougher.

The GS was a prime example. Odermatt struggled at Solden and Beaver Creek. Alexander Steen Olsen (NOR/Rossignol) and Thomas Tumler (SUI/ Stöckli) won those races; Kristoffersen racked up valuable points to build a lead against his rival.

Beaver Creek was also notable for the second place secured by Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA/Atomic): it was the first time a Brazilian athlete has made it onto an FIS World Cup podium.

Over the early races, four different athletes held the GS points lead. But then Odi did what Odi does. At Val d’Isere, Alta Badia and Adelboden, he was back to his ruthless best to clock a hat trick of victories – bolder than the rest, recovering from errors with speed and strength.

After that, he didn’t win again, but neither did he miss a World Cup GS podium. Only his World Championship performance in the discipline disappointed – he was fourth. But remarkable consistency was once again the key.  

Kristoffersen, meanwhile, put in a solid challenge, racking up two second places, a third, and an bucaneering victory in Kranjska Gora.

Loic Meillard was the form racer as the season ended. He was victorious in Hafjell and Sun Valley, outclassing Odermatt in both races, and showing the kind of power that can help him battle his countryman for this Globe next winter.

Odermatt remains speed champion, but teammates step up
The Super G season wasn’t as closely fought as the GS: Odermatt won it comfortably. He opened the season with first place at Beaver Creek, and never looked under great threat: smooth triumphs at Kitzbuhel and Crans Montana sewed it up. 

Once again, his technical ability on courses with more turns, twinned with his downhill power, proved the ideal combination.

The discipline did provide an exciting breadth of winners, however. Six men clinched Super G races – Odermatt, Von Allmen, Frederik Moeller (NOR/Atomic), Dominik Paris (ITA/Nordica), Mattia Casse (ITA/Rossignol) and Lukas Feurstein (AUT/Head).

These were particularly exciting moments for Von Allmen, Moeller and Feurstein – in their early 20s, scoring their first major wins to showcase their potential – and for Casse, who stood on top of a podium for the first time, aged 34, in Val Gardena.

In the Downhill, meanwhile, a three-way Swiss battle emerged. Von Allmen, 23, came into the season with just one previous podium, but looks like an explosive and level-headed racer in the mould of his pioneering teammate.

Von Allmen scored three straight Downhill second places early in the season, and ended the winter with dazzling victories in Crans Montana and Kvitfjell.

Monney, meanwhile, won in Bormio and collected two other podiums finishes.

The pair pushed Odermatt to the limit. But victories in Val Gardena, and at the iconic home Downhill in Wengen, gave him a platform: three consecutive second places gathered enough points to keep the title in his grasp.

“It’s one of the biggest things you can achieve as a skier, to win the Downhill Globe,” said Odermatt. “It’s a special feeling. 

“The beginning of the season was very strong from my side, with the victory from Val Gardena, and another victory in Wengen, with a home crowd it is unbelievable.”

Allmen in particular will be eyeing the Downhill globe for 2025/26, however.

Kristoffersen prevails in four-way Slalom thriller
Kristoffersen has been fighting to find consistency on his new equipment over the past couple of seasons: 2024/25 was the winter it all came together for the canny, tough Norwegian. 

He DNF’d in Kitzbuhel: apart from that, he never finished worse than sixth across the other 11 races.

He showed all his battling qualities: a master of coming from behind, on tricky slopes and in icy conditions, forever technical and aggressive.

It worked best in Val d’Isere, where he was imperious, and he struck a key late blow against the rest of the field in Kranskja Gora.

He was challenged all the way by the resurgent Meillard – whose two DNFs ultimately made the difference, as the Swiss racer didn’t finish worse than fifth otherwise.

Timon Haugan (NOR/Van Deer) also notched a notable season – three slalom wins, and two second places, to finish third overall, while Clement Noel (FRA/Dynastar) had a wildly unbalanced campaign – he won four races, more than anyone else, but only managed one other podium.

Consistency, then, is the secret, for the Norwegian who won his fourth Slalom Crystal Globe, to go with 2016, 2020 and 2022.

“I’ve done it a few times now and it just gets tougher,” said Kristoffersen. “The pressure, the mental toll. But I’ll look back at this with gratitude. Four globes in nine years, that’s something I’m proud of.”

Worlds throw up surprises
No big shocks among the globes, then. The World Championships, however, showed that men’s ski racing is far from predictable.

Odermatt won the Super G – but Raphael Haaser (AUT/Fischer) was a surprise second place, and Adrian Smiseth Sejersted (NOR/Atomic), without a podium since 2021, an even bigger revelation in third.

Haaser then won the first top level race of his career, the GS – having been the final selection on the Austrian team to race, and having finished fifth on the first run. Tumler took silver and Meillard bronze.

The Downhill went to Von Allmen, with Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT/Head) scoring his first podium of the season in the discipline to come second, and Monney third.

Meillard won the slalom, ahead of Atle Lie McGrath (NOR/Head) and Linus Strasser (GER/Rossignol).

When all was done, however, it was Odermatt’s season.

He surpassed Pirmin Zurbriggen as the most successful male Swiss skier in World Cup history. He grabbed his fourth consecutive win in GS in Adelbolden. And he now has nine discipline Globes and four Overall titles.

He will come into the Olympic season more driven than ever. Who can stop him?