The 2022/23 Alpine Ski World Cup season has started

After the somewhat surprising cancellation of yesterday's women's race due to weather conditions and the simultaneous cancellation of the next weekend's ski races, which were to be held in Zermatt for the first time, due to lack of snow, today's season opener with the men's giant slalom in Sölden in good weather was a good sign for all alpine skiing fans. With the number 1, the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault opened the race and unfortunately continues as the last season had ended, with disappointing results. He will be annoyed. He was followed by the Austrian Manuel Feller, who managed to get ahead of Pinturault. The crown favorite and 2022 Olypia winner in giant slalom, Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, started the race in third place and put a clear exclamation mark on who was the boss on the course with his best time of 59.88 s and a gap of 0.89 seconds. The Norwegians Henrik Kristoffersen and Lucas Braathen, the latter with the second-best run time, showed that they are in form and this despite a change of material for Kristoffersen, who since this season leads on the ski brand "Van Deer" of former ski superstar Marcel Hirscher, which now belongs to the Red Bull Group. Only the Slovenian Zan Kranjec was able to keep up with the front runners, all the others were already well behind in the rear of the field.

The second run was not able to shine with surprises or with almost none. The American Tommy Ford shone with a clear best time and was able to reduce his gap of 2.38 seconds from the first run to 1.16 seconds and this clearly shows what incredible potential he has. But it also shows what is always true for Slalom and Giant Slalom races: both runs must be good, one alone is not enough. In the end, the result was a respectable 6th place. The Slovenian Stefan Hadalin was also convincing in the second run, as was the Norwegian Rasmus Windingstad.

Manuel Feller (AUT) with the 16th final rank, Alexis Pinturault (FRA) at the end on rank 20 or the Swiss Gino Caviezel on rank 21 will certainly not be satisfied. Super G and downhill ace Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) will certainly be happy about the 4 points that 27th place gives, which he will gladly take for the overall World Cup. Lucas Aerni (SUI), Linus Strasser (GER), Ricardo Tonetti (ITA) or even Ryan Cochrain-Siegle (USA) will not have been happy about their premature end. The same certainly applies to downhill specialists Matthias Mayer (AUT) and Dominik Paris (ITA), who also did not make it past the first run.

In the end, the season opener ended more or less as one might expect, with no big surprises in intermittently bright weather and the usual favorites in the top positions.