Italian skier Federica Brignone was untouchable on Sunday under the sun of Val d’Isère where she won the Alpine Ski World Cup super-G, in a race marked by numerous off-piste events, not sparing the favorites.
The experienced Italian, 313 World Cup starts, showed herself to be the most agile in taming the tricky layout of the Oreiller-Killy track, achieving, unlike her opponents, a round without any technical fault. At the end of a race punctuated by numerous retirements, including that of Mikaela Shiffrin, “Fede” is ahead of the Norwegian Kajsa Vickhoff Lie by 44 hundredths and her compatriot Sofia Goggia by 59 hundredths, who complete the podium.
“I really like this track because it’s never too steep but it’s never flat so you always have to be almost at the limit,” Brignone, already third in the Val d’ super-G, analyzed before the race. Isère in 2020.
At 33, she signs her 24th World Cup victory and her third this season after her double over the two giants of Tremblant (Canada) two weeks ago. “It’s the best Christmas present I could have given myself,” reacted Brignone after the race, who will be able to celebrate his victory with his family, who came to surprise him by traveling to Val d’Isère.
Rarely have so many athletes abandoned a race: 26 of the 58 skiers at the start did not see the finish line on Sunday. Like others, ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin badly negotiated a gate and went off the track, an extremely rare “DNF” for the five-time American winner of the big crystal globe.
Olympic super-G champion Lara Gut-Behrami and world champion in the discipline Marta Bassino made similar mistakes, also depriving them of a full race.
Despite the lack of points scored on Sunday, Mikaela Shiffrin remains at the top of the general World Cup rankings with her three victories and seven podiums since the start of the season (620 points). She is followed in the race for the big globe by Federica Brignone (557 points, three victories and five podiums) and Lara Gut-Behrami (429 points).
The Women’s Alpine Skiing World Cup continues Thursday with the night slalom in Courchevel.