Thomas Tumler wins giant slalom at Beaver Creek for 1st World Cup title

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Thomas Tumler won his first World Cup race Sunday to help the Swiss team complete a clean sweep at Beaver Creek and edged out Lucas Pinheiro Braathen for the giant slalom title.

The 35-year-old Tumler led after the first run with a time of 1:16.24 and then finished Run 2 in 1:11.36 for a total of 2:27.72 to beat Pinheiro Braathen by 0.12 seconds and claim his third giant slalom podium at the World Cup.

Braathen, whose second run of 1:10.41 was the fastest of the day, became the first Brazilian athlete to stand on a World Cup podium.

“I just think it’s such a privilege to be able to be the first one to bring the Brazilian flag, something that I’m so proud of, up to a winter sport World Cup podium,” Braathen said.

Slovenian Zan Kranjec finished third — his 15th time on a World Cup podium for the giant slalom — with a total time of 2:28.18.

Justin Murisier won the downhill on Friday and Marco Odermatt won the super-G on Saturday before Tumler’s giant slalom win finalized the Swiss sweep.

Odermatt, the three-time defending World Cup overall champion, took a bad line early in the second run and abandoned it altogether. The 27-year-old, who won nine of 10 giant slalom races last season to walk away with the Crystal Globe, also did not finish the first race of the season in October and is scoreless in the giant slalom’s overall standings.

Pinheiro Braathen leads the season standings with 130 points, ahead of Norway’s Alexander Steen Olsen (129) and Henrik Kristofferson (125). Tumler is fourth with 118.

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