SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — “One of the best super-G skiers of all time ... Marco is just in another league.”

Marco Odermatt's rivals were left in awe Friday after the Swiss ski star dominated the super-G at the Alpine world championships, justifying his status as the big pre-race favorite.

The lauded Swiss standout beat silver medalist Raphael Haaser by a full second, the second-biggest winning margin in a men’s super-G at the worlds.

Odermatt had a flawless run down the sunbathed Schneekristall course and pointed his finger up to the sky and started celebrating almost as soon as he reached the finish area.

Then he pounded his chest several times and let out a scream.

Perfect day

“Everything was perfect ... I couldn’t ask for anything else,” said Odermatt after becoming the first Swiss world champion in super-G since his childhood idol Didier Cuche won the title in 2009.

“I had the best feeling from the third gate. I felt my skis were perfect, did exactly what I wanted, and this gives you in a difficult super-G the confidence to ski your line, to attack, to search the limit, and not go over the limit.”

It’s the first super-G medal from a major event for Odermatt, who is the Olympic giant slalom champion and won the downhill and GS titles at the worlds two years ago.

“It’s extremely nice to be world champion in super-G as well, it’s incredible,” Odermatt said. “For sure, this means a lot. If I could wish for it, I would probably take this one as the first one."

Odermatt is a three-time overall champion and has won 44 races, including 14 super-Gs, on the World Cup. He is the runaway leader in the super-G standings and the only racer with multiple wins in the discipline this season, most recently in Kitzbuehel.

Austria’s second medal

Haaser earned host nation Austria’s second medal, a day after Stephanie Venier won gold and Haaser's sister, Ricarda Haaser, crashed and suffered a season-ending knee injury in the women's super-G.

“I’m really speechless. If you see the crowd, the weather is perfect, home world championships, going away with a medal is just amazing,” said Haaser, who won bronze in combined at the 2023 worlds.

Adrian Smiseth Sejersted was 1.15 seconds behind Odermatt and took bronze for the Norwegian’s first medal at a major event, continuing the tradition that Norwegians usually excel in this discipline.

“Yes, so many good super-G skiers from Norway. With Aksel (Lund Svindal), Kjetil (Jansrud), (Kjetil) Aamodt, (Lasse) Kjus,” Sejersted said.

His teammate Fredrik Moeller finished seven-hundredths behind Sejersted in fifth in the youngster's breakout season that included a super-G win in Bormio in December on the course to be used for next year's Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“I think (Moeller) is going to maybe not dominate because of like Odermatt ... but he’s going to be in the top, like many years now," Sejersted said.

And what about Odermatt?

“One of the best super-G skiers of all time. Hitting a perfect run then you win the world championships with a second. So it’s crazy good,” Sejersted added. "Marco is just in another league, so that’s OK. I guess if he continues then he is maybe going to be the best ever in terms of results.”

Praise for Odermatt

Other racers joined in the praise for Odermatt.

Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who was the best American finisher, sharing seventh place with Italian veteran Dominik Paris, called it “evident” that Odermatt is “above the rest of us, winning by that margin in this big of an event. And it’s incredibly well deserved.”

Cochran-Siegle's teammate Bryce Bennett, who was 15th, added that Odermatt “can do no wrong almost.”

“It’s the way that the skis work and the equipment works. And he lines up and with the confidence, it’s insane. Like the whole thing is working really well," Bennett said.

Vincent Kriechmayr, the 2021 world champion in both super-G and downhill, placed fourth and missed a medal by five-hundredths of a second in his first race since injuring his knee in a crash in the Jan. 18 downhill in Wengen.

Canadian speed specialist James Crawford, who upset the favorites to win the 2023 super-G world title, and won the prestigious Kitzbuehel downhill last month, finished 3.41 seconds off the lead.

The field missed several standout racers because of injuries, most notably former overall World Cup champions Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Alexis Pinturault as well as speed specialist Cyprien Sarrazin.

The worlds continue with the women's downhill on Saturday.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing