Excellent alpine skier Jan Zabystřan, a student at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, achieved a historic success. In Val Gardena, Italy, he became the first Czech in history to win a men's World Cup race. In the super-G slalom, he defeated the best skier of the moment, Swiss Marc Odermatt.
Twenty-seven-year-old Jan Zabystřan made history in Czech alpine skiing on Friday, December 19, 2025. He became the first-ever male winner of the World Cup. A top representative in alpine skiing, a student at the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Science at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, and competed in the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. The pinnacle of his sports career came right now in Val Gardena. So far, Jan Zabystřan has not won a medal on the World Cup podium. The closest he came was in March this year, when he finished eighth in the Super G in Kvitfjell, Norway.
Zabystřan was doing well in Val Gardena, Italy, right from the start of the super-G slalom, when he took the lead. In the remaining sections of the course, he avoided major mistakes, and in the last intermediate time, he was losing to the first Swiss Marc Odermatt, the biggest favorite of the race, by 17 hundredths. However, the final passage went great for the Czech skier, and he reached the finish line 0.22 seconds faster than the three-time world champion and gold medalist from the last Olympics. Jan Zabystřan moved up from 23rd place in the super-G slalom rankings to fifth place overall. He is 19th in the overall World Cup standings. Congratulations and good luck at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Photo: Profimedia