Swiss star Odermatt wins World Cup giant slalom at Val d'Isere in French Alps, Andorra's Verdu places 3rd

Marco Odermatt raced through steady falling snow, making errors in his run, yet still won a World Cup giant slalom by almost one full second on Saturday.

The Olympic, world and World Cup champion in giant slalom is almost unbeatable in his favored discipline and finished 0.98 seconds ahead of Marco Schwarz.

Joan Verdu, getting a best-ever World Cup result for the tiny principality of Andorra, was third trailing Odermatt by 1.32 seconds.

The 80,000 population of Andorra, nestled in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, had never produced a top-10 finish in 57 years of World Cup racing for men and women until Verdu raced on the podium Saturday to stand next to the Alpine powers of Switzerland and Austria.

"I'm speechless," said the 28year-old Verdu, whose previous best result was 12th one year ago at Alta Badia, Italy.

"It's difficult when you are a kid in Andorra, you really don't have an Andorran idol. It was hard to believe at the beginning.

"I just want to inspire all the

Andorran little guys to believe and to push hard," he said.

Odermatt already is an inspiring generational talent for the Swiss and it was a 25th career World Cup win for the two-time defending overall champion.

He extended his first-run lead on his decisive second run despite being at the limit of his balance at times.

"Many little mistakes," Odermatt

acknowledged. "Visibility was very, very flat. I struggled a bit on the top."

Storied resort Val d'Isere hosted its traditional early season meet days after learning it is unlikely to be in the venue plan for the 2030 Olympics that France is set to host.

Courchevel and Meribel are instead favored to stage Alpine skiing.