BORMIO, Italy (AP) — Swiss teammates and Olympic downhill rivals Marco Odermatt and Franjo von Allmen usually share everything, from notes on a particular course to breakfast-table banter.
Not so much chatter right now. Both are gold-medal favorites Saturday at the Milan Cortina Games, so the sharing of secrets about the tricky Stelvio slope remains guarded.
Sorry, teammate.
“We are really good friends and we try to push each other … and fight against each other,” Odermatt said. “We also know we are rivals for the race itself.”
It’s a slippery slope to tell your competition too much.
“If you have questions on the inspection, questions (about) the line, we give each other information,” von Allmen said before playfully adding, “pretty much without holding anything back.”
American racer Sam Morse is an open book. Need some course intel? He’s all too eager to spill his knowledge.
“I will tell you everything, because I want you to be your very best,” Morse said. “So when I beat you, I know I’m beating your very best.”
Both Odermatt and von Allmen know this course well, along with teammate Alexis Monney. The last time a World Cup downhill race was staged in Bormio – Dec. 28, 2024 – Monney won by a scant 0.24 seconds over von Allmen. In fifth that day that day was Odermatt, who’s the reigning World Cup overall downhill champion.
“It’s nice to have them on the team, because they always push a lot,” Monney said of his teammates. “But we all have very different styles.”
This is hardly a secret: Bormio boasts a demanding course as the Olympics return to a more traditional World Cup track. The course runs about 3,440 meters (just over two miles) and is unrelenting.
It’s steep right from the start and in no time a racer is traveling around 112 kph (70 mph). Then, there’s a long stretch where a racer has to hunker down into a tuck. That’s an exhausting part, retired American racer Bode Miller explained, because, “you don’t get a lot of blood refill in your legs. It’s kind of like strangling your legs and your breathing.”
There’s also the San Pietro jump, where racers fly some 40 meters (131 feet) through the air.
“There’s nothing really technically super-hard about it,” said Miller, who won the downhill at the 2005 world championships in Bormio — to go with a super-G win — and another downhill on the World Cup circuit in 2007. “It’s just all those things combined together.”
The course will run different, though, this time of year. Usually, the World Cup makes a stop here in December when the snow is icier and the course more dark.
“I’m used to coming here in December and being able to see my reflection while I’m inspecting,” said skier River Radamus, who’s from Edwards, Colorado. “It feels like Colorado snow. I feel fairly at home on it but it’s challenging.”
Austria’s Daniel Hemetsberger used the training run Friday to put a scary crash from the day before behind him. Hemetsberger crashed and went through a gate as his helmet fell off. He had swelling and a bruise around his eye. He also hurt his nose.
“I wasn’t sure at the start if it will be good or not,” said Hemetsberger, who was second in the final training run, 1.68 seconds behind the time of Canada’s James Crawford. “But I tried and I believed and it was good enough.”
Top contender Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the U.S. had the fastest split in the the opening training run. He didn’t go Friday, one of numerous racers who took the day off. The rest of the field used the time on the course to experiment through certain sections before turning it into a glorified freeskiing session.
There will be a new Olympic champion this season with Beat Feuz of Switzerland now retired. France’s Johan Clarey, the silver medalist from four years ago, and bronze medalist Matthias Mayer of Austria are not racing, either.
It’s wide open.
“A fight between the slope and you,” Italian racer Dominik Paris explained. “You have to fight to the finish. You will understand who is stronger. That is what’s so fascinating about this hill.”
A home-course advantage for the Italians?
“The language is good for us and the food is good and the accommodation. Everything is good,” said Italy’s Mattia Casse, who had the fastest time in Thursday’s training session. “Also, when you are in training, you see friends. For staying calm, for staying focused, it’s good to have this.”
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