Alpine skiing-Von Allmen heads to Olympics with a win, Odermatt fourth

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland, Feb 1 : Switzerland's Franjo Von Allmen won the last Alpine skiing World Cup race before the Milano Cortina Olympics with his second downhill victory of the season on home snow in Crans-Montana on Sunday.

The reigning world champion and last year's winner on the Piste Nationale started 15th on a sunny morning and beat Italy's early leader Dominik Paris by a hefty 0.65 of a second.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States finished third, 0.70 off the winner's pace, and back on the podium for the first time since December.

"I really like the slope. Pretty easy to ski but not easy to be fast," said Von Allmen.

"It (the win) gives a lot of confidence and I'll try to show also my best skiing in (Olympic venue) Bormio. This was really important for my head and going with a good feeling to Bormio."

Paris, who will carry plenty of national expectation next week, said his start could have been better but he went well through the middle section and over the bumps.

"Franjo is hard to beat because he is really fast on this terrain but I beat Odi (Marco Odermatt) today and that's a good feeling also."

Overall World Cup leader and big Swiss medal hope Odermatt was fourth, his first time off the podium in downhill since January 2025 - a run of nine races.

"I'm very happy with my skiing and it was good to build up this energy and tension again after Kitzbuehel, where everything fell off," said Odermatt, who was second in that previous downhill in Austria but upset not to win.

"I'm going home tonight and have two nights at home. Rest a little bit and then on Tuesday we arrive in Bormio so there's not too much time to do a lot."     

DOWNHILL OPENS OLYMPIC ALPINE PROGRAMME

The showcase men's downhill in Bormio will