'Cherry on the cake': Brignone's magical season continues with Kvitfjell Super G victory

On a day when nobody was perfect, Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol) was close enough.

The Italian star survived a slightly wild run to win her eighth race of the 2024/25 World Cup season in Sunday's Super G in Kvitfjell, extending her lead in the chase for the Overall Crystal Globe as the season enters its final weeks.

The 34-year-old headed a tightly-packed and star-studded podium in the Norwegian resort, just triumphing ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head, +0.06s) and Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic, +0.09s).

"I'm a bit lucky today with the hundredths, but it was hard to make a perfect run," Brignone admitted.

After just missing the podium with a fourth and a fifth in the two Kvitfjell Downhills earlier this weekend, Brignone was on a mission from the outset and resembled teammate Goggia with her run: fast and wild.

The first of the top seeds to make her challenge with bib No.6, the Italian veteran built a big lead early, with the fastest time of all in the second sector.

In the mid-section, she lost her balance briefly in the S-turn before very nearly missing a gate on the entry to the sweeping Bøygen curve, requiring what she described as a Slalom move just to stay on her skis.

That slowed her down and she posted only the 31st-fastest time on the lower speed trap, and although she took a big lead, her position seemed vulnerable with most of her top rivals yet to make their challenge.

"I thought I had these mistakes and I thought it was makeable to do better than what I did, and actually it was in some sections," she said.

"But nobody did a perfect run, and mine was better than the others."

In winning her 12th World Cup Super G race, Brignone equaled Carole Merle (FRA) in fifth place on the women's all-time list, while also becoming the 11th woman to reach 80 World Cup podiums, one behind Tina Maze (SLO) and Maria Höfl-Riesch (GER).

More importantly for this season, however, the Rossignol skier extended her Overall lead to 251 points over defending champion Gut-Behrami, and closed to within 55 points of the Swiss star in Super G with two races left.

Gut-Behrami missed a golden opportunity to make up ground in the Overall standings, with the victory there for the taking in her best discipline.

She was in touch with Brignone on the top section, but went well wide of the ideal line on the S-turn in the mid-section to fall over half a second behind.

She recovered on the lower section to post the quickest final sector of the field, but ran out of track to catch Brignone and was left to rue what could have been.

"I'm not really happy with the way I skied, I made a lot of mistakes in the middle part," said Gut-Behrami, who still reached her 98th World Cup podium and 44th in Super G, two short of the women's record held by fellow Head skier Lindsey Vonn (USA).

"I thought it was pretty slow in the middle. I had no chance to stay on course, I was always too late, so I was definitely surprised (to finish second)."

"It's something I'm doing the entire season, so I'm working on that, trying to change that, because my skiing is fast, but I'm always making too many mistakes."

Goggia was also surprised to end up on the podium, which she said was only possible because "no one made a really clean run".

Like Gut-Behrami, the Italian speed queen also lost time to Brignone in the mid-section of the course, only to make it up after the Bøygen turn to almost snatch the lead, moving into second and eventually settling for third.

"I was really surprised I was so close in second when I came down," Goggia admitted.

"It was a really tricky Super G — the grip was OK sometimes, but at the same time, sometimes it was too aggressive.

"I think I made a lot of mistakes here and there. When I was coming down I didn't have so many good feelings underneath my feet."

Those good feelings were left for Brignone, who is in the greatest form of her career and is closing in on her second Overall title.

"This is the best time of my life because I can do it also in the races," she said. "I'm really confident about my skiing. When I'm on skis I can do what I want, and this is why it's been an amazing season for me.

"Making fourth and fifth in both Downhills was already a good result, but with the victory today, it's the cherry on the cake."