All technical accuracy, the American Mikaela Shiffrin created a sensation by winning the downhill in St-Moritz (Switzerland) on Saturday, her 91st World Cup victory but only the fourth in this specialty.
The five-time holder of the big crystal globe, world No. 1 for the third consecutive season, has already won two slaloms – her favorite discipline – this fall in Levi then Killington, and attacked the speed events with a 4th place on Friday in the super-G of the Graubünden resort.
But with a last success on long skis dating back to the finals of Méribel/Courchevel, in March 2022, nothing suggested that she would beat the queen of the specialty, the Italian Sofia Goggia, by 15/100th, imperious on Friday in super-G , and rarely dominated on the descent as long as it remains on the track.
Another Italian completes the podium at 17/100th, the versatile Federica Brignonne, who rises to 2nd place in the general classification with 195 points behind Mikaela Shiffrin, ahead of the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami.
“I felt really good with my skiing but at the very end, I made a little mistake and I wasn’t sure if the rest of the run was good enough to compensate,” Mikaela Shiffrin told the channel. Swiss RTS.
Setting off with bib No. 3, impeccable in the long sliding section yet promised to the speed specialists, Shiffrin displayed a skeptical pout on her arrival, before letting joy and disbelief burst forth after Goggia’s passage.
“I’m happy with my performance, it’s been a really long time since I’ve done a downhill,” commented the Italian, noting “a few errors” including one which slowed her down before the final part.
The race was certainly deprived of two favorites injured the day before: the Austrian Nina Ortlieb, vice-world champion in downhill, victim of a double tibia-fibula fracture after a fall in training, and the Italian Elena Curtoni , went into the net during the super-G and hit the sacrum.
But in addition to Goggia, Shiffrin was able to beat three highly anticipated Swiss women in St-Moritz, Michelle Gisin (8th), Corinne Suter (11th) and Lara Gut-Behrami (13th), respectively reigning Olympic champions in the combined and downhill. and super-G.
“My goal was to find the rhythm, the timing in speed. There were some very good passages in the wall and that’s what I was looking for,” explained Lara Gut-Behrami, already looking towards the second super-G on Sunday morning.