Industry News
On Sunday, December 3, 2023, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, hosted the second of two Giant Slalom events for the FIS World Cup circuit. Conditions were mixed on Sunday, with good visibility but some wind on run 1 and fog, and snowfall on run 2. Giant Slalom races consist of two runs, with the combined time counting. Only the top 30 skiers qualify for the second run under FIS rules.
Run 1:
With starting bib no. 1 Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland set the pace at Mont Tremblant with 1:06:75. The Swiss is the current World Cup leader and therefore skiing in the red leader bib. Gut-Behrami was followed by Valerie Grenier, who used her home advantage on the top section and flew over the rollers in a great time, looking to be ahead of the Swiss skier. But on the midsection the Canadian went too wide on a gate, costing her an entire second and her rhythm, pushing her back into 11th after the first run. Racing in bib no. 3 was yesterday’s victor Federica Brignone who had had the fastest first run on Saturday as well. Today the Italian could not best the Swiss as she struggled on the same gate as Grenier. The gate was set right at a roller, causing many skiers to get too low if they were not careful or aware of the course setting.
Bib no. 4 was Team USA’s skier Mikaela Shiffrin. She was fast on the top section and mastered the tricky gate on the roller better than her previous two competitors and carried her time advantage into the finish line, crossing it 0.24 seconds ahead of Gut-Behrami, meaning she ultimately had the second fastest first run on Sunday. Italy’s Marta Bassino in bib no. 5 looked to be ahead of Shiffrin on the top section, but the tricky roller section also cost her the time advantage and she finished 0.90 seconds behind Shiffrin and 0.66 seconds behind Gut-Behrami in fourth.
Skiing into the lead on run 1 was Petra Vlhova in bib no. 6. She was initially slower on the top section, but she mastered the difficult mid-section with many rollers better than the other skiers. The course was set by her coach, which may have helped her master the roller section with bravado. She skied into the lead ahead of Shiffrin with a tiny lead of 0.05 seconds.
Rounding out the top 5 however, was not one of the skiers with the first twenty bibs but rather Zrinka Ljutic in bib 23. The 19-year-old Croatian beat yesterday’s victor Brignone by 0.21 seconds to rank five on run the first run.
America’s Paula Moltzan with bib no. 8 was skiing dynamically but the Tremblant course did not suit her skiing style, and required several corrections and she was in 26th place after run 1. Also struggling was Alice Robinson from New Zealand. The Kiwi skier’s left ski slid out straight out of the gate, costing her valuable momentum which she impressively managed to regain towards the mid-section. Ultimately it was the tricky roller gate that became her undoing, as she went too wide and low on the course, causing her to miss the subsequent gate. It was not a good day for the young ski racer from Downunder.
Also victim of the roller gate on the mid-section was Austria’s Julia Scheib who could be heard swearing a frustrated “Scheisse*” as she went too low to make the subsequent gate. She was having a fast run, the fifth fastest of the day, and would have otherwise been a candidate for the podium at Tremblant. Team USA’s Elisabeth Bocock, who is racing on the World Cup circuit for her first season, also missed a gate and recorded a DNF. Much better fared her teammate AJ Hurt, who had recorded a DNF the previous day. The 22-year-old American skied into 17th place on Run 1 and finished the day in overall ninth after Run 2, which is a personal best for the Palisades Tahoe skier.
(*I will let you guess or google what that means)
Run 2:
The visibility for run 2 was getting increasingly worse with the fog settling in from top to bottom for the fastest six female skiers.
Federica Brignone was the sixth-last skier from Run 1 and conditions were becoming less than ideal. The fog was stretching from top to bottom and snow started to fall but the Italian was not to be deterred. She was going to show how much spunk there is in a 33-year-old, putting down the fastest second run of the day which catapulted her into the lead with a combined time of 2:11:95, which none of the next five skiers could beat.
Fifth fastest from run 1, Zrinka Ljutic, could not beat the 33-year-old Italian and finished in overall seventh. It is a personal best for the 19-year-old Croatian. The fourth-last skier was Brignone’s teammate Marta Bassino. While she was fast on the top section, the Italian lost time on the mid-section. The snowfall was possibly also making racing harder, finishing 1.22 seconds behind her teammate in the lead in overall eighth place.
Third fastest and thus third last skier Lara Gut-Behrami seemed unperturbed by the weather. The Swiss ski racer had almost a second lead from run 1 but lost time on the mid-section but still managed to ski into overall second place, 0.33 seconds behind Brignone.
Second last skier was USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, who pushed through the course in the difficult conditions but was unable to take the lead, finishing ultimately in third place, 0.39 seconds behind Brignone and a mere 0.06 seconds behind Gut-Behrami.
Fastest from run 1, Slovakia’s Petra Vlholva, had 1.22 seconds lead from her first run but lost time quickly on the top section. By the time she hit the mid-section, she was half a second behind and she could not regain momentum. Vlholva finished overall fifth. The snowy conditions surely made things difficult for the last skiers.
”I knew the conditions were really tough because you couldn’t see, it was snowing, it was windy.But normally in these conditions I am good. And I’ve been training the last month always in these conditions so before the race we said with my brother ‘ok you’re ready.'”
Federica Brignone
Brignone takes home the second consecutive win in Tremblant. After being the oldest woman to win a FIS World Cup Giant Slalom yesterday, she is today a day older and reclaims this record by one more day.
The second-place finish earns Lara Gut-Behrami enough FIS points to hold on to the Giant Slalom leader bib, now just 5 points ahead of Brignone. Both skiers have won two out of four Giant Slalom races, but Gut-Behrami’s podiums put her slightly ahead of the Italian.
America’s Mikaela Shiffrin is currently 100 points behind the Italian in Giant Slalom standings in third place, however, the American leads the Overall Cup standings with 470 points, 79 points ahead of Petra Vlhova.
