Italian skier Franzoni adds Kitzbühel downhill win to his breakout season with home Olympics looming

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KITZBÜHEL, Austria (AP) — Italian skier Giovanni Franzoni put another exclamation point to his breakout World Cup season Saturday by winning on the classic Streif course, two weeks before the downhill race at his home Olympics.

Franzoni edged out world champion and overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt by 0.07 seconds, as the Swiss star’s wait for his first win in the marquee race was extended for at least another year.

Franzoni’s triumph in Kitzbühel came eight days after his maiden career win in a super-G at another storied World Cup resort, Wengen.

“Unbelievable. From this morning, I could feel the emotions, the crowd, the atmosphere here. I was super, super excited for the race here,” Franzoni told Austrian TV. “It’s such a crazy thing for me.”

The 24-year-old Italian is a former junior world champion in downhill, super-G and combined, but had not been on a World Cup podium before last month, when he placed third in a super-G in Italy. He earned his first World Cup wins four months after his close friend and former roommate, Matteo Franzoso, died in a crash during preseason training in Chile.

“It was a little bit emotional to start. Last year, I was sharing a room here with Matteo,” Franzoni said. “Today, he was into my mind before the start, I wanted to race for him, to ski fast for him. I’m shaking right now.”

Franzoni set the pace as the second starter. Several racers clocked faster split times but no one was able to keep their advantage on the challenging course.

Third-place Maxence Muzaton, a late starter with bib 29, also led Franzoni during his run but the Frenchman ultimately came up 0.39 short, bumping Franzoni’s Italian teammate Florian Schieder off the podium and into fourth.

Odermatt won the super-G on the same hill Friday and led Franzoni for half of his downhill run, but lost time in the challenging final section of the Streif.

Odermatt, who had won three of the previous four downhills this season, leaned on his ski poles and buried his head in his hands in apparent disappointment after finishing, while Franzoni blew his cheeks in relief while watching from the leader’s box.

“Today, just the victory was good enough, that was my big goal, my big dream,” Odermatt said. “I wanted the win, I knew everything else would be a disappointment.”

It was Odermatt’s fourth podium result in nine starts in the Kitzbühel downhill, with a win still lacking.

“It’s a privilege that you come here with the red bib, with such a good shape, a body that does exactly what you want, the mind is here, still hungry for this victory, the setup, the skis are working perfectly,” he said.

“There have to be many things that have to fit together to be able to fight for the top spot, and you never know when this will be the next time.”

Franzoni, who placed 14th upon his debut in the Kitzbühel downhill a year ago, led both training runs this week and confirmed his strong form with a gutsy run down one of the most frightening courses on the World Cup.

Skiing in overcloud conditions, racers didn’t fully match their speed from training, when they had perfect visibility under crisp-clear blue skies and Franzoni even came close to the record for the fastest run down the Streif, set at 1 minute, 51.58 seconds by Austria’s Fritz Strobl in 1997.

The next starter after Odermatt, Swiss teammate Franjo von Allmen led Franzoni at each of the first five check points, by one-fifth of a second at the most, but von Allmen lost his advantage when he nearly skied out before entering the steep finish pitch.

Von Allmen had finished runner-up to Odermatt in Friday’s super-G.

The Hahnenkamm weekend is one of the signature events of the World Cup, with 45,000 spectators flocking to the posh Austrian resort on downhill race day.

The race was attended by high-profile guests from politics, society, and sport, including former California governor and action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, soccer standout Zlatan Ibrahimovic and skiing greats Ingemar Stenmark and Franz Klammer.

The Hahnenkamm weekend features the World Cup races with the highest prize money, paying 101,000 euros ($119,000) to the three winners.

The event concludes with a slalom Sunday.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing