Fifth in time on the first track, Schwarz was ahead of Odermatt by only 3/100th at the end of the second round, 3/100th enough to allow him to sign his fifth victory in the World Cup, the first in the specialty.
This victory confirms that Schwarz belongs to the very closed circle of versatile skiers on the circuit: during the Worlds-2023, he won bronze in giant and silver in combined, with good places of honor in downhill (4th) , slalom (6th) and super-G (6th).
He has now won the World Cup in four specialties, slalom (twice), giant (once), combined (once) and city event (once).
Odermatt, crowned giant slalom world champion eight days ago in Courchevel, had posted the best time in the first run, but the Swiss was mistreated on the first part of the second route and multiplied the errors.
Third place went to Norwegian Rasmus Windingstad 36/100ths from the winner of the day.
Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, second after the first round, finished in 7th place, 1 sec 40/100th behind the winner of the day, after several faults on the second track.
In the general classification of the World Cup, Odermatt remains the leader and is now 393 points ahead of the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, 24th on Saturday.
It would take an incredible combination of circumstances for Odi not to win the big world No.1 globe, as in 2021-22.
He should also offer himself the globe of the giant, his favorite discipline, where he always climbed on the podium this winter in six races (he had skipped the giant of Schladming), including four victories.
