Odermatt Wins Saalbach Super G, Vlhova Takes Home Hill Win In Jasna GS
On her home hill, Slovakian Petra Vlhova put on a good show for her country, winning the race by sixteen-hundredths of a second over New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, who showed the strong skiing she’s capable of after moving up from seventh first run. Shiffrin rounded out the podium in third, .37 second off Vlhova’s pace.
Vlhova had perhaps her sweetest victory of the season, closing the gap in the Overall World Cup standings to a mere 36 points in the process.
Vlhova was clearly emotional after the critical victory as she laid in the snow in disbelief after she secured the win. She sat in second place after the first run, 0.16 seconds behind American Mikaela Shiffrin.
After Vlhova came down in the green in the second run, she only had to wait for Shiffrin’s results. The American was fast on the top, but los valuable time in the middle portion of the course and ultimately finished in third place 0.37 seconds behind. New Zealand’s Alice Robinson improved five places from the first run to grab second place 0.16 seconds off the pace.
Also having reason to celebrate today was Marta Bassino, who officially wrapped up the giant slalom discipline globe with 510 points. With only one giant slalom remaining in the season, Tessa Worley cannot catch the Italian with her 362 points.
After snagging her 69th World Cup victory in Saturday’s slalom, Shiffrin came out first run with her game face on and ready to go Vlhova’s home hill. Both women skied incredible runs, with Shiffrin leading after the first run by a mere .16 seconds. Poland’s Maryna Gasienica-Daniel skied a beautiful first run, landing in third, .44 seconds off the pace. Nina O’Brien, who was second in the first giant slalom run at World Championships, showed her speed once again, landing in fourth from bib 19, .49 off the lead.
Vlhova broke a gate in the bottom section of the course, causing an unfortunate course hold for Shiffrin, who was in the start gate and ready to kick out. Clearly rattled from the start, Shiffrin skied clean from top to bottom, but couldn’t find the fire to grab the victory. Following the race, Shiffrin articulated her disappointment with the way the broken gate was handled, and how lengthy the course hold was.
Standing in the start gate, athletes are able to see the countdown clock from the start. The interval timer counts down from two minutes. Shiffrin heard the course crew and Vlhova's team celebrating when she crossed the finish line, so said she knew Vlhova had come down in the lead. "Then we have a 25-second countdown when the ref closes the start wand, so I clicked my poles together and put them in place, and rather than hearing the 'beeps' to signal 'go', I heard someone behind me say 'start stop' and for a second I thought he said ‘start’, so I almost went," Shiffrin explained.
Shiffrin knew the hold wasn't because Vlhova fell, because she heard the cheering. "It took nearly a minute to hear what the course hold was for, so I was standing there trying to just stay focused, but I felt there was something else going on because we normally get info quicker than that especially for a gate-fix. And then it took another minute for them to say the course was clear. The next countdown for my start was a half-interval, so it took another minute before I was able to go. It just doesn't take that long to fix a gate, but even more so, it doesn't take that long for them to tell you that was what the course hold was for...and it felt like stalling. I had said it was eight minutes, which is obviously not true, but as an athlete standing in the start gate, it feels like an eternity even if it's not. Life isn’t fair and ski racing is certainly not always fair, so it really was more frustration about the hold and communication being unprofessional, rather than unfair.”
Shiffrin noted that even though it felt "unprofessional," it may not have changed the outcome had it not happened. "It might not have changed the results. I could still be third, and Petra deserved to win...she’s skiing amazing, so that’s a separate thing...but life isn’t fair and ski racing isn't always fair, but at least it can be professional.”
All in all, Shiffrin is happy with her skiing and the progression she has made this season, after having some difficulty in giant slalom prior to World Championships. “I felt pretty good with my skiing...it was really good conditions, and super fun to ski GS on that slope, so I was pretty happy about that,” she reflected. “It’s incredible at this time in the season and getting back on the podium in both slalom and giant slalom, after World Champs it was a really big push, and then we went back into training and came prepared for these races. It’s always really incredible when it works out to get not just one but two podiums and have some really good skiing to show.”
The rivalry between Shiffrin and Vlhova on the snow has been thrilling for fans to watch. They have elevated the sport to another level, and continue to do so. Shiffrin shared her thoughts on the rivalry as well, “Petra’s skiing really strong in every event, so I always know it’s going to be a big fight. If I’m second and pushing to climb another step or if I’m in first and I have to defend it, it’s always a really good fight,” she added. “She skied really great today and was able to get the victory. She can be proud of how she skied.”
Vlhova is in a head-to-head race against Swiss speed star Lara Gut-Behrami for the Overall title. Gut-Behrami had a surprisingly low finish today, ending in ninth place and opening the door for Vlhova. Also in Vlhova’s favor is next weekend’s line-up with two slaloms, her strongest discipline, in Are (SWE).
Americans Paula Moltzan and AJ Hurt also put down solid first runs, in 17th and 29th, respectively. Heading into the second run, the Americans had a very tangible opportunity to double podium—the last time that happened was on March 11, 1984, in Waterville Valley, N.H., when Tamara McKinney won and Christin Cooper was third. With four Americans in the second run, the stoke levels were high and the possibilities were exciting.
Hurt, who has scored points in four disciplines (slalom, parallel, giant slalom, and super-G) this season and will be heading to Bansko, Bulgaria next for FIS Ski World Junior Championships, started off the second run by laying down a solid time. She had a few minutes in the leaderboard and moved up to 22nd on the day. Moltzan also skied solidly to cap off a weekend of two top-20 results, landing in 19th. O’Brien left the start gate charging, was skiing blazing-fast through the first interval until she leaned in and DNFed. She was disappointed, but is OK and can be proud of the skiing she put down.
For the men, in a nail-biting race with four guys from outside the 30 throwing it into the top 10, Switzerland’s Marco Odermatt had a beautiful run to take the victory over the surprise second-place finisher Matthieu Bailet by .62 seconds. Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr rounded out the podium in third, .81 seconds off the pace.
Today’s win was crucial in Odermatt’s quest for the Overall World Cup. He narrowed the gap between himself and Alexis Pinturault to a vey slim 81 points with two weekends left in the season. Pinturault had a disappointing result today, having to settle for 15th place and losing many valuable World Cup points.
Amazingly, today only marked Odermatt’s third career World Cup victory, but this season has been consistent as it was his eighth podium of the year.
Meanwhile, Matthieu Bailet made his first major step in establishing himself on the World Cup circuit, as the 24 year-old Frenchman earned his first-career World Cup podium.
While the podium finish was positive for Vincent Kriechmayr, it was also a frustrating day for the Austrian as he could have wrapped up the super-G discipline globe, but will now have to wait until the Season Finals in Lenzerheide to see where the dust settles. Kriechmayr leads the super-G standings with 401 points over Odermatt, with 318 points. In the overall standings, Odermatt (969 points) further closed the gap that France’s Alexis Pinturault (1,050) has to just 81 points.
Today was another day with excellent conditions for the racers. The icy course was challenging for several, but seemed to get faster as the day wore on as several lower bib numbers found themselves with top-20 finishes.
U.S. Alpine Ski Team athlete Bryce Bennett grabbed a career-best FIS Ski World Cup super-G result, finishing in ninth-place to lead all four American starters into the points.
Bennett, whose previous best super-G result was 20th in Santa Caterina, Italy back in December 2016, skied a clean run, hitting the two tactical sections well. The rest of the course was pretty straight-forward, assistant coach Chris Beckmann shared, and the sun was popping on the track, which gave the higher bibs a bit of an advantage. Rather than going home for a break following World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Bennett opted to stay in Europe and train with the Austrians at Saalbach to work through some ongoing equipment issues.
“It’s been a pretty tough season...but with that, in the last month and a half, Leo - my technician - and I, along with my whole team at Fischer, have gotten on the same page and started working in a good direction together,” commented Bennett. “We’ve been testing a lot of stuff, and we’re trying to advance the product, which has been difficult...but we’ve been making steps in the right direction. Coming to Saalbach for training was good, to test it out. Hopefully, we don’t make the same mistake twice, but it’s ski racing and in ski racing, you’re probably going to make that mistake 50 more times, so we’ll see.”
Bryce’s height, along with the fact that the prep period was limited due to COVID, affecting equipment testing, both have played a factor in his equipment challenges this year. “The canting of the boots—if it’s off by literally .1 of a degree, the skiing is totally different with my long shins and long legs...if it’s off by a little bit at the bottom, it’s huge at the top of the leg, so it’s super difficult to figure out. Just takes some time.”
Both Bennett and head coach Randy Pelkey shared that the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team men’s speed crew’s vibe is great and the team is progressing well as a whole. Bennett, who grew up skiing at Squaw Valley, Calif. with Erik Arvidsson, specifically called out Arvidsson’s performance on Saturday with his top-10 and how stoked he is for him.
“The whole team is going in a good direction,” said Bennett. “There was some good skiing that happened yesterday...and Erik skied so well. I mean, he is an incredible skier. There’s no denying that. He’s really good, he works so hard. It’s cool to see him so motivated and focused...I haven’t seen that in him in a very long time, and I’ve been around him for a long time. He wants to race World Cup and he wants to be successful at it, and all season long he’s been a sponge—he’s just been learning and learning and learning. He executed perfectly yesterday, skied so well top to bottom, and it just shows his capabilities. It’s cool to have him around too, pushing us. He has serious focus, and it paid off for him. I’m psyched for our whole team and the results the team is collectively putting down.”
Jared Goldberg also started for the Americans, and grabbed points, landing in 25th. Travis Ganong ran into some trouble, making an awesome inside ski recovery, landing in 28th. Middlebury College’s Arvidsson grabbed his first World Cup super-G top-30, landing in 30th to cap off what was a brilliant weekend for the 2016 World Junior downhill champion.
