Brignone dominates to win World Cup super‑G, cuts gap to Shiffrin after the American skies out
Federica Brignone dominated to win a World Cup super‐G on Sun‐ day and trim the gap in the over‐ all standings to Mikaela Shiffrin, who was one of many top skiers to fail to finish at Val d'Isere.
Brignone beat Kajsa Vickhoff Lie by almost half a second, fin‐ ishing 0.44 ahead of the Norwe‐ gian skier, who was a surprise second to prevent an Italian one‐ two in the French Alps.
The 33‐year‐old Brignone, who won a pair of giant slaloms at Tremblant, Quebec earlier this month, yelled in joy and put her head in her hands when she saw her time after crossing the line.
"I have to be honest, every‐ thing was good for me today, even in the parts that maybe I wasn't at 100% immediately, I tried to get back into my rhythm and push even more, that was my strength today," said Brignone, who won just one race last season.
It was a 24th World Cup win for Brignone, making her the most successful Italian female skier and moving her level with Gustav Thöni in second overall for her country, behind only Al‐ berto Tomba who won 50 races.
"I don't look at records, I look at how I'm doing today or re‐ cently. Each race is a story in it‐ self and at the moment each race this season is fantastic in its own way," Brignone said.
It was Lie's fourth podium and her first in super‐G since an‐ other second place in Garmisch, Germany almost three years ago.
"I've been struggling a bit going into the race season," Lie said. "I know I can go fast and I've been really confident but I've just struggled to have the race level. I gave it all today and I trusted myself, so I'm super happy."
Brignone's Italian teammate Sofia Goggia was third after im‐ pressively managing to atone for an early mistake. Goggia, who is shaking off a cold, won the only other super‐G so far this season earlier this month.
Shiffrin failed to finish after missing a turning gate on a blind section that troubled several athletes on Sunday. Olympic champion Lara Gut‐Behrami also skied out.
"Lucky for me I didn't see them (Shiffrin and Gut‐Behrami)," Lie said. "I just saw Fede and it looked really easy so I thought, 'OK, I'll just do the same,' and I need to thank her for that."
Almost half of the 58 starters failed to finish on the O.K. course, which was set by one of the Italian coaches, Paolo Ste‐ fanini. The non‐finish rate of 44.8% was the fourth‐highest in all World Cup races since at least the 1999‐2000 season, be‐ hind three slalom events.
Shiffrin, who skipped Satur‐ day's downhill on the Saslong course, still leads the overall World Cup standings where she is bidding for a record‐tying sixth title.
However, the American skier saw her lead cut to 63 points ahead of 2020 champion Brignone, who is enjoying her best start to a season.
"I've certainly given myself some lovely Christmas pres‐ ents," Brignone said with a laugh. "I said before the season that I'd probably had my best summer training, I really missed very few days and man‐ aged to push almost always and that makes it easier to do it in the race.
"Honestly, up to now I've not really thought about (the over‐ all title). It's more the greatest dream again, but I'm just trying to enjoy the races ... I really want to ski in my own way, I want to try to give everything and see what happens. We're only in December so let's stay calm."
Next up on the women's World Cup circuit is a night slalom in Courchevel on Thurs‐ day.
Swiss star Marco Odermatt edges Zubčić to win World Cup giant slalom at Alta Badia
Marco Odermatt claimed a record‐matching fifth straight World Cup giant slalom victory on Sunday but his win at Alta Badia was by a more slender margin than the two‐time de‐ fending overall World Cup cham‐ pion is used to.
Odermatt heaved a sigh of relief as the Swiss star crossed the line with a combined time just 0.19 seconds faster than Filip Zubčić, who could only shake his head and smile wryly.
Zubčić had seemed set for a first victory in nearly three years and yelled in joy after a perfect run down the Gran Risa saw the Croatian finish more than two seconds ahead of Žan Kranjec.
But Odermatt is is almost un‐ beatable in his favored disci‐ pline.
The Olympic, world and World
Cup champion in giant slalom had led after the first run and also laid down a strong second one to claim his 14th victory in the past 20 World Cup races in the event.
"I knew as always, I had to keep risking and really push it and I had a good run," Odermatt said. "The snow was better than ex‐ pected in the second run — it was not as bumpy as I expected.
"I saw it was very tight at top and then the big distance until the third place, so I knew I had to ski really well. I had a good feel‐ ing while skiing — it felt very good."
The 26‐year‐old Odermatt, who had also won in Alta Badia in each of the past two years, won the only other giant slalom so far this season last week by almost one full second.
No one apart from Zubčić could even get close on Sunday, with Kranjec 2.26 seconds behind.
"When I came to the finish area I saw the gap, it was like two sec‐ onds in front of everybody, but I knew that Marco is on the start so I wasn't celebrating yet be‐ cause you know this guy he's ab‐ solutely … crazy," said Zubčić, who made the podium for the first time in two years.
"I want to say congratulations to him because in 99.9% with this run you win but today was not enough obviously."
After matching Marcel Hirscher's and Ingemar Sten‐ mark's mark of five straight giant slalom victories, Odermatt will have an immediate chance to break the record as there is an‐ other race in the discipline on Monday in Alta Badia. The sea‐ son‐opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria was abandoned.
It was a 26th World Cup victory for Odermatt and saw him in‐ crease his overall lead to 72 points ahead of Marco Schwarz, who was fourth on Sunday. He also moved 176 points above Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who finished a respectable 13th in a discipline the speed specialist often skips.