Zabystran stuns Odermatt in super-G to become first Czech man to win a World Cup race

VAL GARDENA, Italy (AP) — It took a historic achievement and some late sunshine to deny Marco Odermatt another World Cup victory.

No Czech man had ever won a World Cup race in the 60 seasons of the Alpine skiing circuit until unheralded Jan Zabystran started Friday’s super-G wearing the low-ranked bib No. 29. Odermatt, the Swiss superstar, was sitting in the leader’s box by the finish area looking likely to follow up Thursday’s downhill victory with yet another win.

But Zabrystan — who only had one top-10 result in his previous 56 World Cup races — stunned the field by taking advantage of the better light to finish 0.22 seconds ahead of Odermatt.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Zabrystan said. “I saw the green light, it’s something crazy.”

He is not the first surprise winner at Val Gardena, which is suited to such quirks. The sunshine can arrive late on the course nestled in the spiky Dolomites mountains to light the way for late starters. That can sometimes upend the standings — just as it did Friday.

Zabrystan was fastest on the sun-bathed bottom part of the course, but he also posted the quickest split in the top section to show his win was not all luck.

Odermatt had raced about 50 minutes earlier, when he had been impressively aggressive while skiing in darker light just before midday.

Third-placed Giovanni Franzoni also got a career-best result, 0.37 back. The former world junior champion in super-G had the No. 16 start bib and was among the first racers to get blazing sunshine on the lower section, where only Zabrystan was faster.

Other low-ranked racers to shine included No. 43 starter Matthieu Bailet in fifth and Italian veteran Christof Innerhofer sixth with a No. 30 bib immediately after Zabrystan.

Zabrystan’s was not the highest bib number among recent winners at Val Gardena. American downhiller Steven Nyman won the classic Saslong race in 2012 wearing No. 39.

The 27-year-old Czech’s previous best World Cup result was eighth place in a super-G in Norway last year. He went to the past two Winter Olympics, failed to finish six of his nine events, and with a best result of 25th.

As a measure of how good Odermatt had been, he was the only one of the first 10 starters who finished with a top-10 result.

Odermatt extended his huge lead in the World Cup overall standings as he chases a fifth straight title. He also now leads the season-long super-G standings after three races.

___

AP Olympics coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics