2024 Alpine Skiing World Cup – Men's giant slalom
The men's giant slalom in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of ten events, including the final. The original schedule included 12 events, but two were canceled during the season. Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, the two-time defending champion. not only won his third straight championship but completely dominated, winning 9 of the 10 races in the discipline. Season summaryThe first giant slalom of the season, scheduled as usual on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria in October, had to be cancelled due to high winds, although 47 skiers had already completed their first run.[1] The cancelled race was subsequently rescheduled for Aspen on 1 March 2024.[2] The first race of the season was actually held in Val d'Isère in early December, and Marco Odermatt continued his dominance from the prior two seasons; as of this race, he has now won 13 of the last 19 World Cup giant slaloms, including four in a row.[3] At Alta Badia, Odermatt extended his dominance to six giant slaloms in a row, winning both races in an unusual Sunday-Monday pairing.[4] Odermatt then continued his dominance by winning the giant slaloms in Adelboden, Schlamding, and Bansko, making him 6-for-6 in giant slaloms for the season and giving his a winning streak of nine straight World Cup giant slaloms.[5] When Odermatt next won the first two giant slaloms in the U.S. (Palisades Tahoe and Aspen), he clinched the discipline title for the season,[6] and he then won the final Aspen giant slalom to stretch his winning streak in the discipline to 12 straight, including all 9 in the current season, leaving him 2 short of Ingemar Stenmark's all-time record of 14 straight in one discipline.[7] The penultimate giant slalom in Kranjska Gora was cancelled due to lack of snow,[8] setting the stage for a four-way battle for the other two spots on the podium at finals, with only 23 points separating second from fifth. FinalsThe World Cup finals in men's giant slalom took place on Saturday, 16 March 2024, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. Only the top 25 skiers in the World Cup giant slalom discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline, plus any skiers who had scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, were eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 finishers earned World Cup points in the discipline. Coming into the finals, Odermatt (undefeated for the season) seemed about to match Stenmark's record of winning all 10 giant slaloms in a season, set in the 1979 season (45 years ago). However, while leading the race during his second run, Odermatt missed a gate, ending his pursuit of Stenmark's record and handing the victory to his Swiss teammate Loïc Meillard, who thus finished second in the discipline for the season, with Filip Zubčić of Croatia third.[9] Standings
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