2023-11-25 19:53:23
Alpine skiing
Second race, second victory: Gut-Behrami irresistible at the giant slalom in Killington
Lara Gut-Behrami also wins the second World Cup giant slalom of the season and for the second time in a row in Killington. The Ticino triumphed with a considerable lead over Alice Robinson and Mikaela Shiffrin. It is her 39th World Cup victory.
Lara Gut-Behrami celebrates her second win of the season with New Zealander Alice Robinson and local hero Mikaela Shiffrin.
Robert F. Bukaty / AP
As with his victory a month ago at the season overture in Sölden, Gut-Behrami won the race with an irresistible second run. Coming into the decision in third place, she took seven tenths off half-time leader Alice Robinson and 66 hundredths off Mikaela Shiffrin. In the final tally, the 32-year-old left her competitors behind by at least 62 hundredths.
Shiffrin, who attended a sports academy in Vermont as a teenager, is still waiting for her first giant slalom triumph in front of her home audience. However, she has won five of the six slaloms in Killington so far.
While Shiffrin has to be patient in the giant slalom, Gut-Behrami delivered the next example of her impressive condition and consistency. It took the Ticino woman almost three years following tearing her cruciate ligament at the beginning of 2017 before she was able to compete for the podium once more in the giant slalom. Since the 2020/21 season, she has once more been a regular podium finisher in the core discipline and is incredibly consistent: in 21 of the last 23 World Cup giant slaloms, she was ranked in the top 10. She made it to the podium eight times and won three times. She also won the World Cup title in 2021 and Olympic bronze in 2022.
Gisin with increase
As in Sölden, when Mélanie Meillard was the second best Swiss ski athlete in the final ranking in 17th place, Gut-Behrami was the only Swiss woman at the front. Michelle Gisin (14th) made it into the top 15 following an improvement in the second run, Wendy Holdener and Simone Wild took places 23 and 25. Mélanie Meillard missed a month following the good start in Austria like Camille Rast, Andrea Ellenberger, Vivianne Härri and Stefanie Grob the second run.
The third slalom of the winter is scheduled for Sunday in Killington (1st run 4 p.m./2nd run 7 p.m.). Especially for Holdener, it is a good opportunity to quickly forget the lean Saturday: the Schwyz woman, who continues to struggle in the giant slalom and is one of the best in the slalom, is starting as last year’s winner. The triumph 364 days ago was the first in her flagship discipline following 30 podium places in the World Cup. (sda)
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