Industry News
Italian ski racer Federica Brignone became the oldest female skier to win a Giant Slalom FIS World Cup race today, December 2, 2023, at Tremblant, QC. The 33-year-old broke a 24-year-long standing record, set in 1999 by Austrian Anita Wachter, who had been 32 at the time of her win. Second place went to Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova and third place to Mikaela Shiffrin from Team USA.
After the first run, the top five skiers were Federica Brignone in the lead with 1:06:50, just 0:11 seconds ahead of Sweden’s Sara Hector and 0.35 seconds ahead of last week’s winner Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami. Placed fourth after run 1 was Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova and fifth was USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin. In Giant Slalom the combined time of two runs counts and the second run is conducted in reverse order, with the fastest skiers going last.
Mikaela Shiffrin had finished the first run in fifth place and the American skier admitted later, that she did not risk it all in her first run. The race course at Tremblant was unfamiliar to her, and the visibility had also not been quite as good, with some fog during run 1. She made up for the hesitation in run 1 with a great second run. In fact, it was the second fastest second run of the day, a mere millisecond behind Vlhova’s record time for run 2.
Petra Vlhova had finished in fourth place and put down a very aggressive run from top to bottom and managed to gain speed on Shiffrin on the flat mid-section. The fastest second run of the day catapulted the Slovakian into what was ultimately second place.
Switzerland’s Gut-Behrami could not best those times and her 0.05-second lead on the Slovakian from run 1 was more than eroded on the flat mid-section of the course, where the Swiss lost 0.43 seconds in total on Vlhova, finishing ultimately in fifth place and ending her winning streak in Giant-Slalom for the season. The Swiss skier however remains in the red leader bib, 25 points ahead of Brignone.
Sara Hector once again narrowly missed out on a podium. After finishing in second place in run 1, the Swedish ski racer could not beat Shiffrin’s overall time with her second run and finished in overall fourth for the third time this season.
Leader Brignone put down an aggressive second run, risking it all. The Italian threw her whole body into this race with a lot of body contact on the gates but the aggression paid off, and the Italian crowned herself the winner of the first of two Giant Slalom races in Tremblant. It is her 22nd World Cup victory and her ninth Giant Slalom victory.
Other notable performances came for example from Sofia Goggia, who is known as the Queen of Speed — the Italian is the defending Downhill World Cup leader from the 22/23 season. Goggia skied from an already impressive ninth place on the first run into seventh place on the second run. Equally strong, or rather slightly stronger to be precise, was her teammate Marta Bassino who skied into sixth overall.
Canadian Britt Richardson recorded a personal best, finishing in 15th which is a personal best for the 20-year-old from Alberta. Her previous PB was a 22nd. Her teammate Valerie Grenier, who is a member of the Mont Tremblant race club and was thus racing on home territory, finished in eighth place. Team USA ski racer Paula Moltzan skied into 13th place.
While the course in Tremblant is not the steepest Giant-Slalom course, the course is technically demanding, with many rollers and tricky gate setting. Fog on top of the course also made the first run difficult. There were many DNFs recorded on Saturday, including Ana Bucik and Mina Fuerst Holtmann, as well as America’s AJ Hurt. Hurt lost her balance on one of the rollers on the mid-section, causing her to miss the following gate, and ending her hunt for FIS points.
Tomorrow, Sunday, December 3, 2023, the second of the two Giant Slalom events at Tremblant will be held at 11:00 a.m. local time.
