Blanc (SUI) and Perathoner (ITA) lead medal haul as junior world championships conclude

The French region of Haute Savoie concluded a successful staging of the FIS Alpine Junior World Championships on Saturday, but on the piste it was skiers from neighbouring Switzerland and Italy who led the podium charge.

Malorie Blanc (SUI) and Max Perathoner (ITA) were the dominant forces in the women's and men's events, respectively, as both claimed three medals, including two golds, at the 43rd edition of the championships at the Portes du Soleil resort.

Blanc, 20, won gold in the super-G and the women's team combined and missed a third gold in the downhill by the narrowest of margins measured in ski racing, finishing 0.01 seconds behind 19-year-old winner Victoria Olivier (AUT).

Having finished 13th and 14th in the two speed events at last year's junior world championships, Blanc took her skiing to another level this year to become the star of the show.

She won't have long to wait to see if she can raise the bar even further, as Blanc and the other individual gold medallists from the junior world championships are eligible to compete at the World Cup finals in Saalbach, Austria, next month.

Blanc's medal haul in the French Alps was almost exactly equalled on the men's side by Perathoner, 21, who also won gold in the super-G and team combined, while claiming bronze in the downhill.

In a tightly contested super-G, with the top 12 finishers separated by just 0.67 seconds, Perathoner came out on top by 0.21 seconds to erase the memories of his DNF in the same race a year ago.

His super-G gold and downhill bronze was mirrored by 20-year-old Livio Hiltbrand (SUI), who claimed the downhill title and snuck onto the podium in the crowded super-G field behind Perathoner.

Hiltbrand, Blanc and Lenz Haechler (SUI, gold in the men's slalom) led Switzerland to a total of four gold medals from 11 events, with Perathoner's Italy the only other country to win multiple races.

But while Alpine skiing's traditional powerhouse countries fared well at the championships, they didn't have it all their own way.

The women's slalom was won by Latvia's Dzenifera Germane (LAT), who triumphed by nearly 1.5 seconds in a dominant performance to claim her country's first medal of any colour at a junior world championships.

The 20-year-old sensation has already shown her considerable potential in World Cup action this season, finishing eighth in just her fourth and fifth slalom races at that level prior to the junior world championships.

Germane triumphed over an impressive field that included Lara Colturi (ALB), who registered a DNF in the slalom but won bronze in giant slalom to go with her two medals from last year's championships.

The 17-year-old, who was born in Italy but competes for Albania, achieved her first World Cup top-10 finish two weeks before the championships when she finished ninth in the Flachau slalom.

Like Germane, Colturi is a star of the future — and based on what the pair have achieved already, that future may arrive sooner rather than later.

Click here for all the results from the 2024 Junior World Championships.