Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen won the men's World Cup slalom on Sunday in Wengen. Teammate Aksel Lund Svindal won the downhill on Saturday, and on Friday, Kjetil Jansrud, another teammate, won the combined event. The phenomenon of "the sweep" has officially entered the sport of Alpine skiing.
Norway has officially surpassed its previous record for total season World Cup race wins. It is only mid-January, and there are 24 scheduled races to go.
What a day in Wengen! The feeling of leading, crossing the finish and seeing green light is indescribable! 9️⃣4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/7pkQILfXWU
— Henrik Kristoffersen (@H_Kristoffersen) January 17, 2016
It was Kristoffersen's fourth win of the season. The 19-year-old Norwegian also won last Sunday at Adelboden. "It's pretty unique, it doesn't happen every year," Kristoffersen said, the Associated Press reported. "I don't think it's a secret. The work that the individual athlete does makes the difference."
Kristoffersen finished 0.30 seconds faster overall than Guiliano Razzoli from Italy. Stefano Gross, also Italian, placed third at 0.68 seconds behind.
Conspicuously absent from the top finishers was Marcel Hirscher. After finishing 10th in the first run, he did not finish his second race. "It could be that everything is over, the slalom and the overall globes," Hirscher said, according to CBC News. "Now others are the favorites."
Hirscher was expected to race well in this competition and unseat Aksel Lund Svindal from his first place overall position, which he gained on Saturday with his victory in the downhill. Svindal will hold onto first place for now.
With most other racers favoring an aerodynamic tuck, Kristoffersen distinguished himself from other competitors by using a cross-country skate technique for building speed in the beginning stretches of a relatively flat race course.
"I haven't done that much [Nordic skiing] in my life, but I'm from Norway so I guess it's in my body," Kristoffersen said.
The Wengen slalom race marked the first this season in which Hirscher and Kristoffersen did not finish in the first and second positions.
