Industry News
It was a day of two halves today, Saturday, March 9, at Åre, Sweden, with wind and fog for run 1 in the morning and sunshine for run 2 in the afternoon. It was an exciting day of FIS World Cup racing with plenty of action, which unfortunately also saw several DNFs by top skiers like Alice Robinson or Kajsa Lie.
Italy’s Federica Brignone took home the victory, relegating home favorite Sara Hector to second place, and Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami to third place.
Run 1
A Giant Slalom race is conducted in two runs, with the top 30 skiers qualifying for run 2. Sara Hector qualified in first place, with Lara Gut-Behrami in second, and Brignone in third place.
Team USA’s Paula Moltzan was first on the top section but then nearly wiped out. She made a mistake on the lower section but managed to keep it together, then actually sat down briefly but managed to keep skiing and still finish in 13th place. Her teammate AJ Hurt qualified for run 2 in eighth place.
Run 2
Run 2 is conducted in reverse order, meaning the top three fastest women went last. Third fastest Federica Brignone went into the run with a 0.23-second lead. Brignone put down an absolutely smashing run, skiing with full aggression, extending her lead across the entire course, and finishing with a 1.47 second lead on teammate Marta Bassino, who was leading up til then. Brignone let out a massive, triumphant roar in the finish area. It marks her third Giant Slalom victory.
Neither second-last skier Gut-Behrami nor last skier Hector were able to beat Brignone’s run, which had in fact been the fastest second run of the day by more than half a second. Gut-Behrami finished 0.40 seconds behind Brignone. Hector had more than a second lead on Brignone from run 1 but was unable to match the aggression of the Italian skier and squeezed in between Brignone and Gut-Behrami, 0.33 behind Brignone.
Paula Moltzan more than made up for her tricky first run, putting down the sixth fastest second run of the day, moving up into 10th place with the combined time with AJ Hurt right behind her in 11th place, just 0.33 seconds behind Moltzan.
With her victory, Federica Brignone has narrowed the gap between her and Gut-Behrami in the season’s Giant Slalom standings to less than 100 points, meaning it is technically possible for the Italian to still win the small Giant Slalom Crystal Globe. The final decision will be made at the World Cup Finals at Saalbach Austria. In order to snatch the Crystal Globe from Gut-Behrami, Brignone would have to win the Giant Slalom and Gut-Behrami would have to finish outside the top 25 skiers.
The World Cup at Åre, Sweden, will see a Slalom race tomorrow, Sunday, March 10, 2024. Mikaela Shiffrin is expected to make her comeback from injury at the Slalom race, following her crash in January at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
