Olympic ski champ Marco Odermatt wins weather-affected GS

Olympic champion Marco Odermatt won a weather-affected men's World Cup giant slalom Saturday in Val d'Isere, France, to earn his first points in the discipline this season.

Tough conditions with dense snowfall and flat light on the challenging Face de Bellevarde course worsened near the end of the race, causing Odermatt to lose more than three seconds on the fastest racer in the final run.

Still, the Swiss standout managed to just hold on to his first-run advantage and won the race by a small margin.

Austrian skiers Patrick Feurstein and Stefan Brennsteiner completed the podium, trailing Odermatt by 0.08 and 0.12 seconds, respectively. It was the first career top-three result for Feurstein.

"It was obviously one of the biggest fights we've ever had, I guess," Odermatt said.

"I love this atmosphere, when it's getting dark and snowy, like winter should be," he added. "This is exactly for me, I really liked the tough conditions."

The three-time overall champion won the first nine of 10 giant slaloms races last season, but then had failed to finish the final event in March and the first two races of the new season.

"I never lost my confidence, I knew I'm still fast and I still can win races," said Odermatt, who screamed in celebration and hit his chest with his fist several times after finishing.

"For sure, after not finishing the last races, I really wanted to do a good result today," he said.

With the win, Odermatt matched the career tally of Ted Ligety, the American GS specialist who won 24 World Cup races in the discipline between 2006 and 2015.

Only two racers in World Cup history have won more giant slaloms — Marcel Hirscher with 31, and Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark with 46.

Hirscher, the record eight-time overall