Austrian Cornelia Huette will win the super-G at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee on Friday, signing the fifth victory of her career in the Alpine Ski World Cup at home. At 31 years old, the bronze medalist at the World Championships in Courchevel last year has not done worse than fourth since the start of the season. But after a 2nd place in super-G in St-Moritz and a 3rd place in downhill in Val d’Isère, she had not yet won. To offer Austria its first success of the season among the women, Huetter achieved a spectacular end of the race, much faster than her competitors.
At the finish of this super-G, added to the weekend program to replace the one canceled in mid-December in St. Moritz, she is ahead of the Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, second at nine hundredths, and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami ( 21/100th). Starting with bib 8, Huetter had to wait for the Italian big names Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone to pass before he could begin to fully enjoy his success.
The Italians will not get on the podium on Friday: Goggia fell, without seriousness, after a hazardous start to the round while Brignone (4th) missed the start of the race without ever managing to catch up. With her victory and the disappointments of her rivals, Huetter carried out a good operation by recovering the bib as leader of the general classification of the specialty, just ahead of Goggia and Brignone.
The race was interrupted around fifteen minutes after the heavy fall of the Austrian Nadine Fest, evacuated from the track by helicopter and visibly injured in a knee and a shoulder. Ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin was not present at Altenmarkt. After her failed weekend at Kranjska Gora last week (9th in giant and leaving the track in the first round of the slalom), the American decided to skip the Austrian stage to recover from a cold . She should be at the start of the night slalom in Flachau, Austria, on Tuesday.
In the general classification, the five-time winner of the big crystal globe with 93 World Cup successes remains well in the lead with 929 points, far ahead of her runner-up Petra Vlhova (722 points). The skiers continue Saturday with a descent and Sunday with a second super-G.
