Marco Odermatt will miss the Chile training camp due to a minor muscle injury. | Image: Swiss-Ski
Marco Odermatt’s preparations for the 2026-27 World Cup season have suffered an unexpected setback. The 28-year-old Swiss superstar will not travel to Chile with the Swiss-Ski team on Monday, August 31, 2026, after experiencing pain during an athletic training session this week. Subsequent examinations at the Hirslanden Clinic in Zurich revealed what Swiss-Ski described as a “minor muscle injury” in a press release on August 29, 2026.
While Swiss-Ski has characterized the injury as minor, the timing is less than ideal. “The injury comes at an unfortunate time for Odermatt,” Swiss-Ski admitted. The Swiss ski association did notdisclosed which muscle is injured or provided a specific timetable for his return to skiing. For now, the priority is treatment and rehabilitation, with the remainder of Odermatt’s preseason schedule to be reassessed once he is able to return to snow training.
Marco Odermatt on course on Birds of Prey. | Image: FIS Alpine
Odermatt had already returned to snow training earlier this month and was preparing for another season as the dominant force in men’s alpine skiing. The Nidwalden native is currently the most dominant ski racer on the World Cup circuit and has won the overall World Cup title in each of the past five seasons. His five victories put him just one overall title behind the all-time record held by Marcel Hirscher. He has a total of 54 World Cup victories and 102 podiums to his name thus far. Odermatt specializes in giant slalom, super-G, and downhill.
The upcoming Chile camp was expected to be an important opportunity to build toward the new season and he will miss valuable training time. He has thus far been training on the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt, Switzerland, which has been open to Swiss National team skiers thanks to an agreement between Zermatt Bergbahnen AG and Swiss-Ski.
It is important to note that at this point, there is no indication that Odermatt will miss the World Cup season opener. The 2026-27 men’s World Cup begins with the traditional giant slalom at Sölden, Austria, on October 25, giving Odermatt nearly two months to recover. “As soon as training on snow is possible again, the further season preparation will be rescheduled,” Swiss-Ski said, staying vague about a return to on-snow training.
For a skier as dominant as Odermatt, missing a preseason camp is hardly ideal — but the immediate priority is making sure a relatively small injury does not become a much larger problem.
Marco Odermatt in Zermatt. | Image: Rene van Engelen