Industry News
On a dramatic final day of racing in Kvitfjell, Norway, on March 2, Italy’s Federica Brignone delivered a gutsy performance to claim her eighth World Cup victory of the season in Sunday’s Super-G, tightening her grip on the Overall Crystal Globe standings. The 34-year-old Italian, despite a near-crash in the midsection, held off Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami and compatriot and arch-rival Sofia Goggia in a closely contested podium battle.
The race took off with an unusual start, as multiple early skiers struggled with the gate setting. Italy’s Marta Bassino and Germany’s Emma Aicher misjudged their lines and recorded DNFs, while Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin finished more than seven seconds off the pace after also battling the course setup. With several top contenders faltering, Brignone capitalized, attacking the Olympiabakken course aggressively. “I thought I had made too many mistakes,” Brignone admitted. “But nobody was perfect today.”
Brignone, starting with bib 6, built an early lead and recorded the fastest time in the second sector. She appeared to lose control in the S-turn before the sweeping Bøygen curve, momentarily fighting to stay on course. That mistake cost her in the lower section, where she recorded just the 31st-fastest speed. Yet her time of 1:27.88 minutes held up as skier after skier failed to best her effort.
Gut-Behrami, the defending 2023-24 overall season champion, looked poised to challenge but lost critical time in the middle portion, going wide on the same S-turn that troubled Brignone. Though she recovered in the final sector to clock the fastest time there, she fell short by six hundredths of a second. “I made too many mistakes,” Switzerland’s Gut-Behrami said. “It’s something I’ve been struggling with all season.”
Goggia, known for her fearless approach, nearly overtook her teammate in the closing stretch, but ultimately finishing just 0.09 seconds behind. With the podium skiers finishing within less than ten hundreth of a second, it was certainly an exciting race. “It was a tricky Super-G,” Goggia said. “The grip changed constantly, and I never felt totally in control.”
Brignone’s win moves her 251 points ahead of Gut-Behrami in the 2024-25 overall standings with just weeks left in the season. She also closed the gap to just 55 points in the Super-G title race, with two events remaining. The Italian veteran, already the most successful female skier in her country’s history, notched her 80th career podium, tying her with France’s Carole Merle for fifth on the all-time women’s Super-G win list.
For the U.S. Ski Team, Sunday’s Super-G brought mixed results. Lauren Macuga led the Americans with a 12th-place finish, putting together a strong run before losing speed toward the end. “The course was tough, but I’m happy with how I skied,” Macuga said. “The snow was great, and I’m walking away with a solid weekend.” Lindsey Vonn—who remains an iconic name in U.S. skiing despite her retirement—was mistakenly mentioned in some early reports but was not competing. Instead, Jackie Wiles finished 27th, while Bella Wright, Breezy Johnson, and Mary Bocock did not finish their runs. Mikaela Shiffrin sat out the event as she is not competing in any speed events after her crash in Killington last November. Shiffrin only returned to racing in Giant Slalom last week.
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The women’s speed team now heads to La Thuile, Italy, for the final speed events of the season, where Gut-Behrami and Brignone will continue their battle for the discipline title. With Shiffrin likely to focus on technical events, the Super-G and Overall Globe races remain an all-European showdown as the World Cup season reaches its climax.
