Industry News
The small principality of Andorra was hosting the tech women’s World Cup events this weekend. Saturday, February 10, saw the women’s Giant Slalom, and expectations were high on Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami after America’s Mikaela Shiffrin had announced days prior that she would not be competing. Gut-Behrami was less than 100 points behind Shiffrin in the season’s overall standings and a victory would catapult her ahead of the American skier in the rankings and put her in the lead for the big Crystal Globe.
Giant Slalom races consist of two runs with the combined time counting and after run 1 the Swiss skier was seventh. Typically the podium will go to the top five skiers from run 1 but Gut-Behrami showed that there are exemptions to this rule and put down a legendary second run that catapulted the Swiss skier into the lead. The fastest six skiers from run 1 could not beat the Swiss ski racer, but New Zealand’s Alice Robinson came closest, just 0.01 second behind her Swiss rival. American AJ Hurt finished in third, a mere 0.15 seconds behind Gut-Behrami. AJ Hurt had skied a fantastic second run, catapulting herself from sixth place after run 1 to third place.
Italian skiers Marta Bassino and Federica Brignone, who had taken first and second place in the first run could not quite match their aggression and precision on run 2 and were relegated to 6th and 4th place respectively.
This marks AJ Hurt’s second-ever career podium and first-ever Giant Slalom podium. The 23-year-old Palisades Tahoe ski racer had won third place in Slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in January this year. Teammate Paula Moltzan also showed great performance, with a solid 11th place.
“I was hurt all last season so I was excited to come back at all, so this is really crazy to have this. Alice and I grew up skiing together in Lake Tahoe, so this was a moment we’ve been waiting for for a long time, so it’s pretty awesome.”
— AJ Hurt
The Wonder from Down Under Alice Robinson claimed her fourth podium of the season and ninth career podium. The Kiwi skier swapped back to her original coach Tim Cafe, whom she had worked with in the first two years of her career, when she had claimed the other five podiums. Clearly, the switch is paying off for the 22-year-old New Zealander.
“It’s always a bit bittersweet coming second with one hundredth. For sure I’m a little bit disappointed that I couldn’t get the win but a podium is still a really good result. I think I’ve gotten to a point where I’m feeling a lot more consistent than I’ve ever felt: over different weekends, different slopes and different snow conditions, I feel like my skiing’s been quite solid across the board.”
— Alice Robinson
Lara Gut-Behrami is now leading the overall World Cup standings with 1,214 points, a mere 5 points ahead of Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin. “The globes, they give them in March and not before,” Gut-Behrami cautioned. “And I think also this season we saw that to win something it’s not just skiing well, it’s not just your technique, it’s about being healthy and staying safe. “My first priority is to come to the end of the season, and sometimes we forget that. It’s not always talking about points or wins, it’s more about skiing great and staying safe.”
There are eight races left on the Women’s FIS Alpine World Cup Calendar:
February 17 & 18
Crans Montana, Switzerland
Downhill & Super-G
February 24 & 25
Val di Fassa, Italy
Super-G (2x)
March 2 & 3
Kvitfjell, Norway
Downhill & Super-G
March 9 & 10
Åre, Sweden
Giant Slalom & Slalom
