Aicher continues dream fortnight with first Super G win in La Thuile

An astonishing couple of weeks for 21-year-old Emma Aicher (GER/Head) continued in La Thuile, Italy on Thursday, as she stormed to her first Super G World Cup title.

13 days ago, Aicher stood on her debut World Cup podium, in the Downhill at Kvitfjell, finishing narrowly behind Conny Hütter (AUT/Head). The day after, she was triumphant in the Downhill on the same piste. 

Now she has a Super G victory, too. Not bad for someone who started the term with most people thinking of her as a Slalom skier – a discipline she has also clocked top tens in this winter.

She finished a tiny margin (+0.06 seconds) ahead of Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic), who put in a trademark bombastic run, with local hero Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol) coming third.

Both Italians made a little bit of ground on Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head) in the race for the Super G Crystal Globe – but the Swiss racer remains remarkably consistent: she came fourth, and still hasn’t had worse than a fifth place finish in a World Cup Super G this season.

Hütter had looked the most likely to surpass Aicher’s time on a course that got more difficult, on a day that was hit by several delays – but she crashed dramatically at the bottom of the course, having held the lead all the way down.

Aicher shows she is true prospect across the disciplines
Wearing bib number 3, Aicher thundered down a course that had been shortened after poor weather in La Thuile, in 57.89 seconds.

The direct, super fast route was set by her coach, and the German negotiated the bottom section better than anyone – many others would struggle with the final bump.

Goggia was aggressive, and only getting slightly caught under a late gate cost her a first-ever Super G win on home snow.

Brignone’s run was also imperfect – she almost fell at the top of the course, and completely ripped up a mid-section gate, but the home athlete, who had admitted to being nervous pre-race, kept remarkable speed to finish third (+0.39).

Only Aicher looked completely untroubled. “I had a pretty good feeling, I knew there weren’t any really hard things in the course,” she said.

“I watched [Laura] Pirovano and she did a solid run except the last bump, so I felt, ‘just think about it’.

“I'm happy with my skiing. I’m happy with how I’ve improved over the last few weeks. It was a nice course, it didn’t really have any difficulties. It was fun to ski.

“I was a bit lucky with the bib. It's dark and soft and slow now, so that was a big help today."

It was Germany's first women's Super G win in a World Cup since March 2019, when Viktoria Rebensburg (GER/ Stoekli) won in Soldeu.

Aicher admits she has surpassed her ambitions for the season. “In the speed disciplines, I was not expecting this at all," she said. "I wanted to ski good, but I never thought I would be able to do this.

“It means a lot. It’s a dream come true, it’s what I work for every day, so it’s nice that it pays off.”

Goggia and Brignone keep Globe battle raging
With two Super G races to go – another run on this La Thuile piste on Friday, and Sun Valley next weekend, this race kept the Crystal Globe competition bubbling.

Brignone gained ten points on Gut-Behrami: the Italian now has 470, and the Swiss racer 515. Goggia jumped up to 386 points, but will need the other two to falter to have any chance.

“I’m really happy with my performance,” said Goggia. “I’ve made a lot of progress with this kind of snow, these kind of conditions. The snow was really hard to ski because it was really soft and it didn’t have any kind of sustain.

“At the same time, I have to say thanks to the organisers, who made everything possible for us to race. But it was too at the limit.

“It feels always special to race on home soil. This is the house of Federica, she is really local and comes from here. For me, that is more like when we are in Cortina, but at the same time it is always amazing to see our people supporting us.”

Brignone admitted that being at her local resort gave things a different feel. 

“For sure it’s an amazing crowd and for me a lot of emotions,” she said. “It was hard to be so focused as always.

“It was not easy, the snow doesn’t respond as you want. I maybe wanted too much before the first flat, I went a bit out of the line. I was stuck and I knew it, and from there on I tried to push everything I had.

“Then I had another mistake, I went too much on the gate and I was mad because I don’t have to do those mistakes.

'But in the end I had a solid run, it’s a good race. A good result, even if I’m not happy with my skiing.

“I’m lucky, because with that gate I could have been out. I’m happy I’m all in one piece today.”

Both Italians move on to another race tomorrow. Neither are considering the prospect of the Globe. “It’s something I’m not thinking about,” said Goggia. “I’m just really focused on every day.”