Paris doubles up with super-G victory at World Cup finals
The 36-year-old from the Dolomites coped superbly with the hard-packed snow, rutted after a weekend of racing, to finish his run in 1min 26.81sec.
He edged out Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who was third the day before, by 0.07sec. Another Austrian Raphael Haaser was third, 0.38sec behind the winner.
Before his victory on Saturday, Paris had not won all season though he did collect an Olympic bronze on home snow.
"It's a surprise for me too," said Paris at the finish line. "I knew I could do well, but I wasn't expecting another win."
"It felt very strange underfoot with this very bumpy snow. I tried to pick up speed, but when I saw the green light at the finish line I had to look twice because I couldn’t believe it."
Marco Odermatt, who had long ago wrapped up the overall title and a fourth straight super-G crystal globe, drifted home in 19th, 1.97 seconds behind Paris.
It was his worst result in the discipline, since coming 28th in 2022, also at Kvitfjell.
"I will enjoy this for sure in a couple of hours, but usually it's always much cooler if you can collect another globe after a good performance, and today was definitely my worst performance in many years," said Odermatt.
"For sure the battery is slowly going down today. The motivation to race was not at the highest level."
On Saturday, the 28-year-old was seventh in the downhill, where he had already sealed a third successive discipline title.
He has been focusing this week on the giant slalom, where he is not yet certain of a fifth straight globe, at the expense of training for the speed events.
On Tuesday, Odermatt will attempt to hold off Brazilian Olympic champion, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who grew up racing on the Norwegian slopes, in the final race of the season.
"I hope I can keep up this motivation for Tuesday," Odermatt said.
For Paris, who made his World Cup debut in 2008, it was a 26th World cup victory and his eighth on the piste used for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.
He broke a tie with Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud who won two downhills and five super-Gs on the course between 2012 and 2018.
"I feel a bit sorry for him but perhaps it will make him think about returning to competition," said Paris of his 40-year-old former rival.