Friend or foe: teammates duel for marquee Olympic crown

Not so much chatter right now. 

Both are gold-medal favorites on Saturday at the Milan-Cortina Games, so the sharing of secrets about the tricky Stelvio slope remains guarded.

Sorry, teammate.

"We are really good friends and we try to push each other … and fight against each other," Odermatt, one of the all-time greats, said. "We also know we are rivals for the race itself."

It's a slippery slope to tell your competition too much. 

"If you have questions on the inspection, questions about the line, we give each other information," von Allmen said before playfully adding, "pretty much without holding anything back."

Both Odermatt and von Allmen know this course well, along with teammate Alexis Monney.

The last time a World Cup downhill race was staged in Bormio – on December 28, 2024 – Monney won by a scant 0.24 seconds over von Allmen. In fifth that day was Odermatt, the reigning World Cup overall downhill champion. 

"It's nice to have them on the team, because they always push a lot," Monney said of his teammates. "But we all have very different styles."

This is hardly a secret: Bormio boasts a demanding course as the Olympics return to a more traditional World Cup track. The course runs about 3440 metres and is unrelenting. 

It's steep right from the start and in no time a racer is travelling around 112 kph. Then, there's a long stretch where a racer has to hunker down into a tuck. That's the exhausting part, retired American ace Bode Miller explained, because, "you don't get a lot of blood refill in your legs. It's kind of like strangling your legs and your breathing."

There's also the San Pietro jump, where racers fly some 40 metres through the air. 

Austria's Daniel Hemetsberger used the training run Friday to put a scary crash from the day before behind him. Hemetsberger crashed and went through a gate as his helmet fell off. He had swelling and a bruise around his eye. He also hurt his nose. 

"I wasn't sure at the start if it will be good or not," said Hemetsberger, who was second in the final training run, 1.68 seconds behind the time of Canada's James Crawford. "But I tried and I believed and it was good enough."

It looks a wide open race. 

"A fight between the slope and you," Italian racer Dominik Paris explained. "You have to fight to the finish. You will understand who is stronger. That is what's so fascinating about this hill."

A home-course advantage for the Italians? 

"The language is good for us and the food is good and the accommodation. Everything is good," said Italy's Mattia Casse, who had the fastest time in Thursday's training session.

"Also, when you are in training, you see friends. For staying calm, for staying focused, it's good to have this."

Australian Associated Press