Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Men's Giant Slalom - Bansko, Bulgaria - February 10, 2024 Switzerland's Marco Odermatt celebrates on the podium with a trophy after winning the men's giant slalom REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo
(Reuters) - Swiss skiers Marco Odermatt and Lara Gut-Behrami will both be chasing a rare quartet of crystal globes at the Alpine World Cup finals that start in the Austrian resort of Saalbach on Saturday.
Gut Behrami can become only the fourth female skier to take four globes in a single season, a feat previously achieved by Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn and Slovenia's Tina Maze.
The 32-year-old leads Italian Federica Brignone by 282 points in the overall standings, a massive lead with four races remaining and a maximum of 400 points. Brignone is expected to enter only three races in Saalbach, however.
Shiffrin is in third place but a further 63 points behind and has ruled out competing in downhill and super-G at the finals.
Gut-Behrami also leads the downhill standings, 19 points clear of absent Italian Sofia Goggia who broke her tibia last month, and 68 and 72 ahead of Austrians Stephanie Venier and Cornelia Huetter.
In the Super-G, the Swiss leads Huetter by 69 points, with Brignone a further five behind, and in the giant slalom the gap between Gut-Behrami and Brignone, winner of the most recent race, is 95 points.
The only women's crystal globe that is out of contention is the slalom, won by Shiffrin last weekend for the eighth time in her career.
The American will be a contender to add to her record tally of 96 World Cup wins when the slalom is held on Saturday as the first event of the women's programme.
The men will be skiing a giant slalom on the opening day, with Odermatt so far unbeaten in nine races in the discipline this season and chasing his 13th giant win in a row.
The Swiss has already clinched that crystal globe as well as the overall title for the third year in a row, leaving the downhill and super-G globes still to be secured.
That would make him the first male skier to win four globes in a single season since Austrian Hermann Maier in 2001 and he also looks set to break the points record.
Odermatt currently has 1,902 points with his own record of 2,042 set last season.
The March 24 downhill will be the highlight and biggest challenge, with Odermatt 42 points clear of French sole rival Cyprien Sarrazin.
Odermatt is 81 points clear of Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr in the super-G standings, with that race on March 22.
Austrian Manuel Feller has already won the men's slalom globe.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
