Alexis Pinturault wins skiing’s World Cup overall title

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland (AP) — French skier Alexis Pinturault secured his first overall World Cup title on Saturday on his 30th birthday.

Pinturault won a giant slalom race giving him an unbeatable points lead over Marco Odermatt, who placed 11th in Saturday’s race.

The giant slalom was key because Odermatt skips slalom, which is the season-ending race on Sunday.

Pinturault also secured the giant slalom discipline title by overtaking Odermatt, who held a 25-point lead before racing.

Pinturault is the first men’s overall champion from France in 24 years, since Luc Alphand won. The only other Frenchman to win was Jean Claude-Killy, in the first two seasons after the World Cup circuit started in 1967.

Pinturault was runner-up in the past two seasons. He also had three third-place finishes when now-retired Austrian great Marcel Hirscher was winning a record eight straight titles from 2012 to 2019.

A 34th career win in World Cup races lifted Pinturault out of a tie with Bode Miller and into eighth place on the men’s all-time list.

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