Marco Odermatt scorches to downhill world title

Magnificent Marco Odermatt took the men's downhill at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships on Sunday (12 February).

Without a World Cup downhill win to his name, Switzerland's Olympic giant slalom champion was near-flawless on Courchevel's L'Eclipse slope as he claimed his first World Championship medal.

The overall World Cup holder beat Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by 0.48 seconds with the Norwegian matching his Super G silver from earlier this week.

Canada's Cameron Alexander pulled off a superb recovery near the bottom of the run to take bronze.

Afterwards, a delighted Odermatt told FIS, "It's a crazy day, crazy week. It wasn't easy the last days after the disappointing Super G but the skiing is here, the chances are here. I definitely went all-in today because I knew I had to to beat the other guys and it was a perfect run."

Kilde was magnanimous in defeat, telling RAI, "The Odermatt-Kilde battle is still ongoing and today was a classic example of that. The way he skied today was just incredible and the way he charged and went for it... really really cool. It was fun to watch him ski."

Awesome Odermatt claims first world crown

Florian Schieder was the first man to go and, despite going wide on a couple of turns late on, the Italian stayed atop the leaderboard until Odermatt came down the mountain.

The track boasted a spectacular 50m-plus 'Jockey Jump', but it was the contrast between sunlight and shade which prompted mistakes from several racers.

One of those was reigning world champion Vincent Kriechmayr with the Austrian, who won the World Cup Finals downhill at Courchevel last March, ending up seven-hundredths outside Schieder's time.

But Odermatt showed exactly how to ski this course, flying the jumps and carrying excellent speed through the turns on his way to a time of 1:47.05 which would not be beaten.

Super G victor James Crawford moved into second place, just over a second outside Odermatt, before Kilde started his highly-anticipated descent.

The Attacking Viking made a fast start, but small errors on the turns cost him time and he had to settle for his second silver of the week.

But that was far from the end of the drama with the course appearing to get quicker and Cameron Alexander, no doubt inspired by team-mate Crawford's Super G success, made it onto the podium.

He was quick all the way down and somehow stayed upright on a left-hander at the Wall of the Brave close to the finish as he crossed the line 0.89 seconds off the pace for bronze.

Marco Schwarz threatened Alexander's place on the podium but the Austrian slalom specialist, who has performed superbly in speed events this season, missed out by just four-hundredths of a second.

In his last World Championship downhill, 42-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey - the Beijing 2022 Olympic silver medallist - finished outside the top 20.

Results - 2023 World Championships men's downhill (top 10):

1. Marco Odermatt (SUI) 1:47.05
2. Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) +0.48
3. Cameron Alexander (CAN) +0.89
4. Marco Schwarz (AUT) +0.93
5. James Crawford (CAN) +1.01
6. Maxence Muzaton (FRA) +1.08
7. Florian Schieder (ITA) +1.09
8= Dominik Paris (ITA), Miha Hrobat (SLO) +1.13
10. Thomas Dressen (GER) +1.15