Brignone gets back to winning ways

Italian Frederica Brignone did what seemed nearly impossible today, she knocked Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami off of the top step of the podium and claimed the victory in today’s Audi FIS World Cup super-G in Val di Fassa.

The 0.59 second second lead over Gut-Behrami marked the fifth podium of the season for Brignone, and her first victory of the year. The last time The Italian won in the super-G was in Rosa Khutor (RUS) just over one year ago.

But today’s second place finish definitely had a silver lining for Gut-Behrami, as it was enough to secure the super-G discipline globe and make it her eighth straight World Cup podium. Gut-Behrami also further extended her lead in the hunt for the Overall Globe as she now holds a near 200-point advantage over Petra Vlhova, not bad considering she entered the Val di Fassa weekend sitting in second place in the standings.

Gut-Behrami’s teammate Corinne Suter also capped a fantastic weekend, earning her third podium in as many races with her third-place finish.

Putting a damper on the day were two very hard crashes as both Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (NOR) and Rosina Schneeberger (AUT) had to be transported off the hill by helicopter. There was no immediate report on either athlete’s condition immediately following the race.

Up next on the women’s Audi FIS World Cup schedule are a giant slalom and slalom race in Jasna (SVK). It will be a crucial weekend for Petra Vlhova to try to make up some ground in the overall standings on Gut-Behrami after her triple-podium weekend.