Kilde Wins Knitfjell Super G, Tessa Worley Takes Lenzerheide GS

France celebrated again and ended the weekend in Lenzerheide with another victory signed by Tessa Worley (FRA). Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) stretched her lead in the overall World Cup standings by finishing fourth after closest rival Petra Vlhová (SVK) failed to finish the first run. 

In Lenzerheide, the French champion take her second victory of the season, the 16th of the discipline on a par with the legend Annemarie Moser-Proell, behind only Vreni Schneider.

The Olympic champion Sara Hector (SWE), who was in the lead at the end of the first run, slipped to the third position behind an excellent Federica Brignone (ITA), who climbed up to the second place to take her first Giant Slalom podium of the season.

A race that reopened the games for the Giant Slalom title as with two races to go, Sara Hector now has a 55 point lead over Tessa Worley.

Shiffrin's fourth-place finish allowed her to widen the gap ahead of Slovakia's Petra Vlhova in the fight for the overall crystal globe. She maintains the lead with 1,156 points overall and ranks second in slalom, third in giant slalom, and fourth in super-G. Vlhova, who crashed out in the day's giant slalom, maintains her overall points at 1,039.

Shiffrin skied the second-fastest first run, trailing Sweden's Sara Hector by a mere 0.11 seconds. Unfortunately, a couple of slow turns her second run pushed her out of podium position and into fourth. Shiffrin reported that the course didn't feel clean at some gates, and she subsequently felt like she was fighting to regain time through the finish.

"It was hard to get [time] back, but it's not so difficult to lose time," said Shiffrin. "It's a big fight with these other women that are pushing really hard."

With six races left in the season, the fight for the overall Crystal Globe continues.

"It's not the end, for sure," said Shiffrin. "There are plenty of races left, and this was very abnormal for [Petra] today. I doubt she will do that again. It will be a strong fight right to the last race, and I take nothing for granted. And I know she's going to come back motivated and fighting."

Heading into the last men’s speed race of the World Cup tour before the finals, all eyes were locked on Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) and Marco Odermatt (SUI) as they were the only two to secure Super G victories this season. Unfortunately for Odermatt, he didn’t have his best performance and finished 28th. However, it was a very different story for Kilde.

After having placed several times on the podium in Kvitfjell (NOR), Kilde, finally manages to make a dream come true by winning his first World Cup victory on home snow. In claiming the victory today, Kilde managed to secure the 1st place finish in the Super G cup standings. In doing so, it will be the second time in his career that the Norwegian wins the Super G Crystal Globe.

Breathing down Kilde’s neck was Canadian, James Crawford, clocking in a time only 0.07 seconds off the leader. Crawford has been catching many people’s eyes this season after getting a personal best result of 5th in Wengen (SUI), winning the bronze medal in the alpine combined in Beijing, and today securing his very first World Cup podium finish.

Matthias Mayer (AUT) finished 0.12 seconds behind Kilde to claim 3rd place, making it his second podium finish in the last three days. Having already won the downhill in 2020, Mayer has yet to place higher than 3rd in the Super G.

Reining Kvitfjell Super G winner, Dominik Paris (ITA), unfortunately, didn’t have what it took to finish on the podium today. He finished in 4th place, only 0.09 seconds behind Mayer. Nonetheless, the Italian will be happy with his 1st place finish in yesterday’s downhill.