French skier Allegre upsets favorites in World Cup super‑G for 1st career win, Odermatt places 4th

French skier Nils Allegre sped to his first career World Cup victory Saturday as two late starters upset the higher‐ranked fa‐ vorites at a tight super‐G on the classic Kandahar course.

Wearing bib 18, Allegre beat Guglielmo Bosca by 0.18 seconds after the Italian fin‐ ished and spent two minutes hoping for what would have been his maiden win.

Allegre and Bosca, both 30‐year‐old vet‐ erans on the Alpine skiing circuit, denied the Swiss team a 1‐2 finish. Loic Meillard led season dominator Marco Odermatt by 0.03 after the top‐10 ranked super‐G rac‐ ers had completed their runs, but Meillard ultimately trailed Allegre by 0.25 in third.

"It was great, it was just like something go out of me," Allegre said in tears in a course‐side interview when asked about the moment he finished. "I'm 30 years old, it's my 102nd start today, so... I never stopped believing in me and today every‐ thing (went) in the right direction."

The Frenchman had not finished better than fourth before, most recently last month at a downhill in Val Gardena where we was bumped off the podium when American racer Bryce Bennett took the victory as a late starter.

"It's a good day, I had a perfect feeling on my ski from the top to the bottom, I feel really confident on it, I can push a lot," Al‐ legre said.

The Frenchman's near‐flawless run ex‐ tended Bosca's wait for a first victory. But the Italian runner‐up was quick to take the positives after getting onto the podium for the first time.

"In the last races of super‐G I was close to the podium, like in Val Gardena and also in Wengen. So, I was confident that I can ski fast. But coming down and seeing the green light was actually amazing," Bosca said.

The result came just over six years after the Italian broke his left lower leg in a crash at a European Cup race in Austria. He needed several surgeries and two years of recovery before returning to top‐ level skiing.

"Coming here and scoring a podium makes me satisfied so much, it's really what I was aiming (for) when I came back after the injury. So, it's like a fulfillment for me now," Bosca said.

Overall World Cup leader Odermatt's fourth position ended his series of 12 straight super‐G podiums, a feat previ‐ ously only achieved by Austrian great Her‐ mann Maier two decades ago. No male skier has ever had a top‐three result in 13 consecutive super‐Gs.

"A weird race today with small time dif‐ ferences," Odermatt said. "That's because it was a very, very easy and a short super‐ G, a simple course. In these conditions you cannot make the difference anywhere."

Allegre continued the strong run by the French team, led by Cyprien Sarrazin, in men's speed events this season.

In his breakthrough speed season, for‐ mer giant slalom specialist Sarrazin won one downhill in Bormio in December and two in Kitzbuehel last week. In Wengen, he was runner‐up twice and won the super‐G. On Saturday, he finished 0.64 be‐ hind Allegre and outside the top 10.

"We get a good result for everybody in the team. This way we try to continue and push more and more and more," Allegre said. "We are one team and it really helps us in the good days but in the bad days, too."

After days of rain and mild tempera‐ tures, the course, surrounded by green fields, was weakened and organizers used salt to harden its surface.

Allegre said he benefitted from the con‐ ditions with "the salty snow."

"The first part was not really good, the snow was not really compact on the top," the Frenchman said. "I said to myself in the finish area before seeing my time that maybe I was not that fast because I didn't feel really great. But it was the wrong thing."

The top 13 finished within seven‐tenths of a second of Allegre's winning time and included Olympic silver medalist Ryan Cochran‐Siegle as the top American fin‐ isher in 10th, and Swiss skier Franjo von Allmen, who started 44th and placed ninth as the course held up well.

Another super‐G is scheduled for Sun‐ day.

American skier Bella Wright sustains minor injury in downhill crash

American skier Bella Wright sustained just a minor injury after crashing in a World Cup downhill race on Saturday.

Wright had been airlifted off the course but later returned to the finish area with bandages on her chin.

"Just a little chin laceration, no biggie," the U.S. Ski Team said on X with a photo of Wright giving a thumbs‐up.

Wright lost control midway through her run down the Olympia delle Tofane course and was immediately tended to by med‐ ical personnel.

Then she was loaded onto a stretcher and taken off the mountain by helicopter.

On Friday, teammate Mikaela Shiffrin and Olympic downhill champion Corinne Suter were also airlifted off the mountain.