Brignone wins St. Anton super-G to set Italian record

From a downhill to a super-G to a shortened super-G on a course set by one of her coaches, the stars aligned for Federica Brignone to achieve a record-setting win in St. Anton on Saturday.

The former overall World Cup champion mastered the sprint event in the Austrian resort to become the first Italian woman to win 21 World Cup races, breaking a tie with her teammate Sofia Goggia.

Brignone claimed her first victory of the season and her eighth career super-G win in just over a minute — 1:00.21 — ahead of Swiss pair Joana Haehlen (+0.54s) and Lara Gut-Behrami (+0.66s).

"I'm really satisfied and proud of what I've been doing today on the slope," said Brignone, who came into the race having recorded only one top 10 result in her five speed races so far this season.

"I started the season really badly with the speed, and with speed skis I had no confidence. It's coming back now and I know I can do what I want with my skis."

Starting with bib No. 6 in a race switched from a downhill and then shortened due to significant snowfall, and on a course set by Italian coach Giovanni Feltrin, Brignone made a small mistake early on but refocused in the middle section of the course.

"I really wanted to attack and I had not a big mistake but before the Eisfall I was near the nets, near the nets, near the nets," she said.

"And I said, 'Oh, I lost so much time', so I tried really to go and I tried to push really until the end and I knew I could make the difference down here."

That proved to be the key to her victory as she used her giant slalom skills to ski a sublime final section of the course nearly half a second faster than anyone else before or after her.

"From after the Eisfall to the finish I was really able to push every single turn, not going late, not sliding, and I was really maintaining my speed," she said.

The victory was far from assured, however, as the stars of women's speed skiing were still to come and they all took their shot at Brignone's time.

But one by one, they were unable to unseat her from the leader's chair — with Gut-Behrami coming closest but never truly threatening — and, in Goggia's case, failed to finish.

Racing for the first time in nearly a month as a result of the holiday break and the recent technical-heavy schedule, Goggia skied in her typical high-risk fashion and crashed out, uninjured, halfway down the course.

After the top 15 seeds had come and gone, Haehlen started with bib No. 18 and equalled her career-best finish of second, set in the downhill at the World Cup finals last season.

"I couldn't believe it when I crossed the finish line and saw No. 2 because on the gate No. 5, I almost went out," Haehlen said.

"I guess that's super-G, you need to push it to the limit and it worked out until the finish."

Haehlen's surprising run pushed teammate Gut-Behrami down to third, a result the Swiss star felt was an overachievement after what she described as an unsatisfactory performance.

"I'm not really happy (with) the way I skied, I'm just happy I was fast," Gut-Behrami said.

"I'm still struggling a little bit with the balance but I'm happy that tomorrow we have a second chance so that I can ski a little bit cleaner and maybe to push a little bit more between the turns."

The second St. Anton super-G has been rescheduled for 10:15am local time on Sunday.