'It's a dream right now': Brignone on top again in Val d'Isère super-G
Dec 17, 2023·Alpine Skiing
The late-career renaissance of Federica Brignone (ITA) continued on Sunday as she mastered a difficult super-G course in Val d'Isère to recapture the Italian women's record for World Cup victories.
The 33-year-old won her third race of the season and 24th of her career, breaking a national record tie with teammate Sofia Goggia (ITA), who finished third on Sunday as the two Italians were split by runner-up Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (NOR).
On a challenging course that caught out many of the world's best skiers, Brignone used her experience and giant slalom skills to great effect, finishing an impressive 0.44 seconds ahead of Lie.
"Almost perfect," Brignone said.
"Today it was really hard to do the perfect run. The super-G was not easy for sure. There were big turns but also a lot of speed, so you were going fast and arriving at some big turns where you had to be ahead.
"I tried always to push, always to be ahead, and never be happy with my speed but wanting more. So that was my goal today and I was really aggressive but I let my skis go."
While Brignone benefitted from the course set by one of the Italian coaches, Paolo Stefanini, many others struggled on the 'OK' piste, leading to 26 DNFs (did not finishes) out of 58 starters.
That non-finish rate of 44.8 per cent is the highest for a women's super-G World Cup race since at least as far back as the 1999/2000 season, and fourth-highest in all disciplines during that time behind three slalom races, according to the Alpine Ski DataBase.
The course set caught out two of the biggest pre-race favourites, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI), who both seemed to misread the mid-section and missed gates as a result, while several other top skiers also failed to finish.
Brignone had no such problems, however, as she continued her impressive start to the season that sees her in second place in the race for the overall title, only 53 points behind Shiffrin.
"It's a dream right now," said Brignone, who has already tripled her one race win from last season in the early part of this year's campaign.
"I'm free, I'm skiing good, I'm having fun and I'm motivated to try to ski faster, and I think that's the best thing for the beginning of the season."
With so many top skiers faltering, that left the door open for speed specialist Lie, who reached her fourth World Cup podium and second in super-G.
A brilliant top section saw Lie lead Brignone at the halfway stage, and even though the Norwegian lost time on the technical turns and couldn't keep the green light all the way to the finish line, she screamed in delight when she saw her result.
"I've been struggling a bit going into the race season," Lie admitted. "I know I can go fast and I've been really confident but I've just struggled to have the race level. I gave it all today and I trusted myself, so I'm super happy."
Despite having a relatively late start number with bib No.16, Lie was unaware of the problems that plagued some skiers ahead of her, and she wisely used Brignone as her model instead.
"Lucky for me I didn't see them (Shiffrin and Gut-Behrami)," Lie said. "I just saw Fede and it looked really easy so I thought, 'OK, I'll just do the same,' and I need to thank her for that."
Lie's impressive run pushed Goggia, who has battled a cold all week and managed only fourth in yesterday's downhill, down from second to third.
The Italian star was slightly wild in parts and was late in the line on the technical turns during the mid-section of the race, but still reached her 51st World Cup podium.
"It was, generally talking, a good performance," Goggia said.
"Of course my skiing was not so clean, this super-G is always tricky. In some gates I was a bit dirty. But at the same time with my physical condition, being a little bit sick, I think I had a good performance.
"I'll take this podium and I'm going home to recover."
While Goggia has earned the rest after four speed races over the last two weekends, the technical specialists on the women's tour have one more challenge before the Christmas break: a night slalom in Courchevel on Thursday.
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