Joy for Italy again as Bassino shocks by grabbing super-G gold ahead of Shiffrin

Marta Bassino produced the super-G run of her life to snatch a second World Championship gold in two days for Italy.

A giant slalom specialist who has never won a super-G World Cup race, Bassino produced a tactical masterclass on the Roc de Fer track to finish 0.11 seconds ahead of six-time world champion Mikaela Shiffrin.

Norway’s Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, never better than 15th in super-G on the World Cup cicruit this season, added to the sense of surprise by tying with Austrian veteran Cornelia Huetter for bronze.

With skier after skier – including pre-race favourites Lara Gut-Behrami and Ragnhild Mowinckel – excelling on the high-speed top section before coming undone as the course wound into the icy shade and the snow conditions changed, it was Bassino who nailed it.

The 26-year-old, who won the GS World Cup Crystal Globe in 2021, held back up top before mastering the tough, technical lower half – a challenge that clearly suited her.

“I’m so excited because it was really hard to watch all the girls after me because I lost a lot of time the first part but then I think I did really great in the last part,” the new champion, who won parallel slalom gold two years ago, said in the finish area.

“It’s still a little bit unbelievable.”

It is a feeling the thousands of fans in the finish area shared. For the second time in these Courchevel Meribel World Championships Shiffrin had the clock on her side with just a handful of gates to go, until everything changed.

For the 2019 super-G world champion it was a silver won, however, and not a gold lost.

“That was the best run I could do on this track and I had one turn where coming on to the pitch I lost it all. This is a difficult track,” Shiffrin said before delighting in the fact she had put her Beijing 2022 Olympic Games experience, and the opening Alpine combined, behind her.

“Of course I had some tough races, everyone talked about the Olympics, I think I answered 200 questions the last four weeks about ‘are you afraid the World Championships are going to be more like the Olympics and you won’t get a medal’ and ‘are you afraid of this?'. This Combined the other day I was like ‘oh no’ and then again everybody is like ‘So, is this the Olympics, is this the same thing, is it a curse?' And I was like no! It just happens.

“It feels really, really nice to have a very strong performance on this hill in the super-G and I am looking forward to the GS and the slalom.”

For the 30-year-old Huetter who was fourth in the super-G back at the 2015 World Championships before being struck down by a series of injuries, it was pure redemption to hit the podium.

“The last years I was not able to ski and race because I was at home with a bad knee. I had tears in my eyes for a few moments today at the finish,” the Austrian skier said.

She, like Vickhoff Lie, had an early bib number, and both managed the icy turn, which caught out so many later skiers, superbly.

“It’s insane. I am so happy and I am so proud,” the 24-year-old Norwegian said. “I am just happy to be here and be fast and living the dream.”

The next chance for the women comes at 11:00 local time on Saturday in the downhill with Italian Sofia Goggia the firm favourite. Add on the fact Bassino is now full of confidence before her specialist disciplines of GS and parallel, and these Championships really could turn into dreamland for Italy.