Brignone wins career first combined in Crans-Montana

The first of two alpine combined races for the ladies at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, got off to a rocky start on Friday morning with the first three athletes – Ilka Stuhec, Tessa Worley, and Denise Feierabend – all skiing off the super-G course at the same early jump. The jury decided to lower the super-G run to the reserve start and restart the field from the beginning.

With the new start, the Slovenian Stuhec was able to post the fastest super-G run, 0.52 seconds ahead of Federica Brignone of Italy. Austria's Michaela Kirchgasser was a closer third, 0.69 seconds off the leading pace.

The race was rescheduled from a cancellation in Zauchensee, Austria, in January. Light drizzle in the early hours cleared before single snowflakes fell in the finish area at race time. Americans Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, and Laurenne Ross chose not to start the race, citing safety concerns over course conditions. Feierabend also missed the restart as she was taken to the hospital to evaluate a possible knee injury.

In the slalom, Kirchgasser was the first of the trio to see the green light at the finish. But Brignone produced an impeccable slalom run (third fastest) to surpass the Austrian. Stuhec did her best to make it down the slalom set, but she ultimately finished in second place, 1.01 seconds from Brignone. Kirchgasser rounded out the podium 1.16 seconds back.

"I was really surprised,” said Brignone. “It was not easy. The slalom was really steep and bumpy, but I just tried to attack the slalom and not be attacked from the slalom. I tried to follow the rhythm and stay on the line, but then I didn’t think I would be fast, but then I was.”

Current alpine combined standings leader Stuhec said it's still too early to talk about the season title.

"I’m feeling a bit tired actually. It’s been quite a long day, but it’s always nice to stand on the podium. We still have one more race to go, and then we can talk about the globe.”

“[Alpine combined] is pretty cool because ... between speed skiing and technical skiing, it’s really awesome because you really have to change all of it between runs,” Kirchgasser said. “You have to change not only just the skis, but also have to change the boots and also the skiing.”

The ladies contest a super-G on Saturday starting at 10:30 CET.