Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami claimed her fourth consecutive World Cup today, February 16, at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Temperatures in Crans-Montana were fairly warm, causing the finish to be moved up the hill for safety reasons, as the snow down low was too soft. This did not keep Gut-Behrami from claiming her 44th career victory on home soil in only 1:19.11 minutes. Second place was shared by her teammate Jasmine Flury and Austria’s Cornelia Hütter.
America’s Isabella Wright was the third starter today and was strong on the top section, with a 0.32 second lead but went too low on one of the top gates, causing her to come out off the course and missing the subsequent gate, resulting in a DNF for the Snowbird athlete.
Jacqueline Wiles was the best U.S. athlete today who raced in bib 5 to what was ultimately 13th place. Wiles has been having a fantastic season this year, with a career-best second place earlier this year in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where many of the world’s best athletes had crashed and suffered season-ending injuries. Mikaela Shiffrin was one of the skiers who had crashed in January on the renowned Olimpia delle Tofane Downhill course.
Related: Podium for Team USA’s Jackie Wiles & More Crashes at the Downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy
Lauren Macuga finished in 20th place today, earning her valuable FIS points, while Tricia Mangan, unfortunately, lost the pressure on her outside ski on the top section of the course, causing the ski to bounce out of control in the rutted course and causing the young American skier to crash. She appeared unharmed and was able to ski down unassisted.
The Italians were certainly missing their ‘Queen of Speed’ Sofia Goggia today, however, teammates Laura Pirovano, Marta Bassino, and Federica Brignone showed strong performances with a fourth, fifth, and sixth place respectively, all three skiers just missing out on a spot on the podium by less than half a second. Sofia Goggia had suffered a season-ending knee injury in training earlier this month. Goggia is still leading the Downhil season rankings with 350 points but Gut-Behrami is a mere 41 points behind her in second place and poised to overtake the Italian in tomorrow’s race, should the Swiss skier finish in the top five. A first place scores 100 points, while a fifth place still scores 45 points, enough for Gut-Behrami to take the lead.
The World Cup continues at Crans-Montana with another Downhill race tomorrow and a Super-G on Sunday.
