Swiss ski star Odermatt secures overall and GS World Cup titles in race won by teammate Meillard

HAFJELL, Norway (AP) — Swiss ski star Marco Odermatt didn't win the race, but he did earn two crystal globes and set a national record in Alpine skiing on Saturday.

Odermatt finished second behind teammate Loic Meillard in a World Cup giant slalom to formally lock up his fourth straight overall and GS titles.

The only remaining challenger for the overall title, Henrik Kristoffersen, needed to finish the race well ahead of Odermatt to keep his mathematical chance alive, but the Norwegian finished in 16th place.

“Yeah, it’s unbelievable, two more globes on my side,” said Odermatt, who extended his lead to 635 points over Kristoffersen in the overall standings with only five events remaining.

Clinching the title was a formality since Kristoffersen doesn’t compete in speed events, though the Norwegian would have the right to start in super-G and downhill at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, which begin next weekend.

The result also gave the 27-year-old Odermatt an insurmountable lead in the GS standings, where runner-up Kristoffersen is trailing by 106 points with only the season-ending race remaining.

“The big one I already felt like I had it, but the GS one was still a big fight with Henrik,” Odermatt said. “He skied so good in Kranjska Gora (two weeks ago) and my GS shape is probably not at the very, very best level like I skied last year.”

Odermatt started the season with two DNF's in giant slalom, leaving him on zero points after two races, but won three times in the course of the season.

“This GS globe has a different story. The last three years I really started well ... I wore the red (leader’s) bib from the first until the last race and was almost all season pretty clear ahead,” the Swiss standout said.

“This year I started with two zero points, so I really had to come from the back and win race by race .... To win this globe on this little bumpy road is amazing.”

Odermatt also set a Swiss record with his 87th career World Cup podium, moving him one past the previous best mark set by Pirmin Zurbriggen in 1990.

Odermatt became the sixth skier in men’s World Cup history with at least four overall titles, but only the second to win four in a row. Austrian standout Marcel Hirscher won a record eight consecutive titles in 2012-19.

It has become typical for Odermatt to lock up the overall title even before the season-ending races at the World Cup finals.

His point-advantages in the final standings only grew over the years, from leading runner-up Aleksander Aamodt Kilde by 467 and 702 points, respectively, in his first two years as overall champion, to beating Meillard by 874 points last season.

Odermatt already secured the super-G championship last week and is favorite to add the downhill title as well. Winning four globes would mean a repeat of his achievement from last season.

Ahead of the last downhill next week, Odermatt leads teammate and world champion Franjo von Allmen by 83 points. Odermatt will win the title if he finishes 15th or better, or if Von Allmen does not win the race.

“It’s definitely a different kind of skiing if you know you are super close to the globe but not done it yet,” Odermatt said. “There is no space for error, so it helps a lot to have this GS globe in the pocket and just focus now on the last one in downhill.”

Kristoffersen still has a chance to win a globe this season, as he holds a commanding 77-point lead in the slalom standings ahead of Sunday's race.

In Saturday's GS on a course set by Swiss coach Julien Vuignier, Meillard led a Swiss sweep of the podium, leading Odermatt by 0.14 seconds and third-place Thomas Tumler by 0.23.

“I think it’s the first time we do it in GS, three Swiss guys on the podium for our team," Meillard said. "So, that's something special that we are going to remember.”

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, chasing Brazil’s first-ever top-level ski race win since his switch from the Norwegian federation this season, briefly led the race in the second run before being bumped into fourth by the Swiss trio.

American racer River Ramadus finished seventh to match his best result of the season from a giant slalom in Beaver Creek, Colorado in December.

World champion Raphael Haaser had a nasty crash when the Austrian straddled a gate, went airborne and landed on his upper back. He was attended to by medics and got up with a bloodied face before sliding down to the finish area on one ski.

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

Switzerland's Loic Meillard, center, winner of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, left, and third-placed Switzerland's Thomas Tumler, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Loic Meillard, center, winner of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, celebrates with second-placed Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, left, and third-placed Switzerland's Thomas Tumler, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt celebrates on the podium after taking second place in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt reacts at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt competes in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Zenoni)

Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen concentrates ahead of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Giovanni Zenoni)

Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen competes in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Loic Meillard competes in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen concentrates ahead of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen competes in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt competes in an alpine ski, men's World Cup Giant Slalom, in Hafjell, Norway, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — Swiss investigators are probing what caused a fire in a bar at an Alpine ski resort that left around 40 people dead and another 115 injured during a New Year's celebration.

Most injuries, many of them serious, occurred when the blaze swept through the crowded bar less than two hours after midnight Thursday in southwestern Switzerland.

The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue. Overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland’s worst tragedies.

Crans-Montana is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Sierre, Switzerland, where 28 people, including many children, were killed when a bus from Belgium crashed inside a Swiss tunnel in 2012.

Here’s what we know about the deadly fire:

The blaze broke out around 1:30 a.m. Thursday inside the Le Constellation bar amid the holiday celebration.

Two women told French broadcaster BFMTV they were inside when they saw a male bartender lifting a female bartender on his shoulders as she held a lit candle in a bottle. The flames spread, collapsing the wooden ceiling, they told the broadcaster.

People frantically tried to escape from the basement nightclub up a narrow flight of stairs and through a narrow door, causing a crowd surge, one of the women said.

A young man at the scene said people smashed windows to escape the fire, some gravely injured, reported BFMTV. He said he saw about 20 people scrambling to get out of the smoke and flames, likening what happened to a horror movie.

The injured were so numerous that the intensive care unit and operating theater at the regional hospital quickly hit full capacity, said Mathias Reynard, head of the regional government of the Valais Canton.

While officials said Thursday it was too early to determine the fire's cause, investigators have already ruled out that it could have been an attack.

Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage, said Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, at a news conference.

Work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, according to Valais Canton police commander Frédéric Gisler.

The Swiss officials called the blaze an “embrasement généralisé,” a French firefighting term describing how a blaze can trigger the release of combustible gases that can then ignite violently and cause what English-speaking firefighters would call a flashover or a backdraft.

Victims suffered from serious burns and smoke inhalation. Some were flown to specialist hospitals across the country.

Authorities urged people to show caution in the coming days to avoid any accidents that could require the already overwhelmed medical resources.

With high-altitude ski runs rising around 3,000 meters (nearly 9,850 feet) in the heart of the Valais region’s snowy peaks and pine forests, Crans-Montana is one of the top venues on the World Cup circuit.

The resort will host the best men’s and women’s downhill racers, including Lindsey Vonn, for their final events before the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.

The town’s Crans-sur-Sierre golf club, down the street from the bar, stages the European Masters each August on a picturesque course.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Leicester reported from Paris. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed to this report.

Police officers inspect the area where a fire broke out at the Le Constellation bar and lounge leaving people dead and injured, during New Year’s celebration, in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)