McGrath Tops First Ever Norwegian 1-2-3 In Wengen Slalom, Brignone Wins Cortina Super G
Atle Lie McGrath (NOR/Head) admitted “all the emotions” came flooding out after he finally turned a healthy run one lead into World Cup Slalom victory in Wengen. The fact he led a never-been-done-before Norwegian clean sweep only increased the volume of tears flowing down the 24-year-old’s face on Sunday afternoon.
One year ago, McGrath let a healthy three-tenths of a second lead slip in the very final stages of Wengen’s iconic race. While one week ago he failed to convert a 0.62-second first run advantage into victory in Madonna Di Campiglio.
But this time, well aware that he had the opportunity to secure a first Norwegian one-two-three in the 58 years of men’s World Cup Slalom racing in Wengen, McGrath wrote his name into the history books.
Close friend Timon Haugan (NOR/Van Deer) took second after a storming second run effort, while Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer) continued his personal love affair with Wengen by grabbing yet another podium.
Behind the ‘Smiling Vikings’ it was a case of so near yet so far for the home team and their passionate support.
Rising star Tanguy Nef (SUI/Atomic) shone once more to grab a best ever World Cup finish of fourth, while big hope Loic Meillard (SUI/Rossignol) made up for a disastrous first run with a quite brilliant afternoon effort. Quickest in the field by a vast 0.32 seconds, Meillard climbed 19 places on the leaderboard to grab fifth. While Daniel Yule (SUI/Fischer) continued a recent return to somewhere near his best with sixth on what he calls the “best Slalom hill on the World Cup”.
Fourth-sixth place was not quite what Switzerland wanted and means the wait for a home Slalom winner will stretch to at least 39 years. This season’s three-time winner Clement Noël (FRA/Dynastar) and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (BRA/Atomic) will also be happy to move on, after ending 11th and 12th respectively.
No such problems for Norway, who now boast five wins and six podiums in the nine Wengen races since 2015.
The fact that McGrath, last a World Cup winner in March 2022, will now forever be hailed as a Wengen champion is music to the man’s ears.
“Relief,” McGrath replied, when asked for emotions as he finally crossed the line as a winner. “In Wengen you hear everything at the start and I knew it was already double Norwegian so I felt like it was my duty to make it triple Norwegian in the Slalom in Wengen. “This was the second time in a row, in a week, where I had over (half) a second lead and today I decided I was going to ski smart and if it was enough, it was enough. When it was, I just couldn’t believe it. All the emotions bottled up over the last years and last weeks came out at once.”
When challenged as to what had changed in him since throwing his lead away last year, the now three-time World Cup winner had no hesitation. “Consistency and experience. It’s just trusting myself more and knowing that I had to attack the bottom of the race. Last year I had a three-tenths lead at the last split and I lost it and I wasn’t going to do it this time,” he said.
That, and some timely advice from former double Wengen slalom winner Felix Neureuther (GER). “He told me, ‘You know Atle I would kill to be in your position. Being in the lead at a legendary race, you never feel that the rest of your life when you are done skiing. ‘Trust me’ he said, ‘enjoy it now because some day you are not going to be skiing any more’. He put a lot of things in perspective for me.”
Remarkably, it is not the first time Norway have swept a men’s World Cup podium this season. They did it in the Giant Slalom season opener in Sölden, Austria. Something that had been bothering Haugan.
“It’s incredible, I said to the guys in Sölden please can you give me a triple in Slalom this year,” Haugan – 12th in that GS in Sölden – said with a laugh. “And now we have got it, already.”
Despite a win in Alta Badia in December, Haugan had been struggling to find consistency on his Slalom skis this season. And even when he entered the packed finish area on Sunday, the 28-year-old was far from convinced he had secured just his second podium place of the season.
“I didn’t have a good feeling when I crossed the line. I was a bit surprised when I saw the time, I made some mistakes,” the Norwegian said. “The rollers are extremely difficult so I am really happy to have a great result here.”
The result moves him up a place to fifth in the Slalom Crystal Globe standings. There is just one man they are all looking up to and he feels what is already a great season, could soon get a whole lot better.
“Not 100% (sure) the margins (are) on my side the last four or five races,” said Kristoffersen, who has finished fourth-fifth-third-third since winning the Val d’Isere Slalom in December. "If I was three-tenths faster in the last four races it would have looked insane. Now it looks really good but we just have to keep pushing and keep working. Eventually, the margins will come on our side in the end, that’s how it works."
“Maybe (I am) a little bit hot in the head," Kristoffersen added. "I maybe want it a little bit too much, I maybe go in a little bit early at times and then I hit the tracks a little bit wrong. Maybe I want it a little bit too much instead of just calming down and hitting the tracks. But that’s how it is.”
It is quite a place to be for Kristoffersen. Even with these issues, the 30-year-old sits comfortably clear at the top of the Slalom rankings and is behind only Marco Odermatt (SUI/Stöckli) in the GS and Overall standings. Perhaps if he gets those “margins” onside, he can even challenge the Swiss star.
Last season’s Slalom Crystal Globe winner, Manuel Feller (AUT/Atomic) would surely love to have Kristoffersen’s ‘problems’ to fix. After four DNFs this season, the Austrian did make it to the finish, grabbing a respectable eighth place. But he still remains well off the form that delivered four Slalom wins last season, including in Wengen.
His compatriot Marco Schwarz (AUT/Atomic) was a whole lot happier with his seventh place. After a difficult return to racing following long-term injury, the 2021 Alpine Combined world champion is starting to find his form. With next week’s Kitzbühel Slalom and February’s home World Championships in Saalbach looming, it is good timing.
For the women, with the Olympic Winter Games in sight, the Cortina monkey is finally off the back of Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol).
The Italian superstar won her first race in the Queen of the Dolomites in Sunday's Super G, just 24 hours after a debut podium there that followed a career's worth of disappointment at the famous venue.
In claiming her fourth victory of the season, Brignone put on a Super G masterclass, dominating every element of the course to finish over a second ahead of all but one other skier, runner-up Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head, +0.58s).
"Here in Cortina was one of the only places where I was not able to go on the podium, and I really wanted this," Brignone said. "This was my dream. It was like a taboo, everybody was asking, 'In Cortina, you're never good.'"
Her results confirmed that unflattering description, as in 28 World Cup and world championship races in Cortina prior to this weekend, Brignone's best effort was fourth and she had only recorded five top-10 finishes.
But with the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games looming in just over a year's time, Brignone has finally come to terms with her Cortina demons and signalled that she will be a medal contender on home snow next February.
On Sunday, she showed her versatility by mastering the steep dive into the Tofana Schuss at the top of the course and the technical turns of the mid-section, recording the best time of all in three out of the four sectors of the race.
One late line heading into a gate towards the bottom of the course was the only minor mistake in an otherwise flawless run that saw her extend her lead in the Overall World Cup standings to over 100 points.
"It was not easy at the end today, it was really going fast," she said. "You had to have the courage to really let it go with the bumps."
In winning her 31st World Cup race, Brignone moved into equal 11th on the women's all-time list with Petra Vlhova (SVK/Rossignol) and Erika Hess (SUI), as well as outright sixth with 11 Super G victories.
The 34-year-old also extended two of her own records as the Italian women's Alpine skier with the most World Cup triumphs and as the oldest winner of a women's World Cup race.
"I'm so grateful and happy about this weekend," said the Rossignol skier, who now has four podiums in the last nine days and 75 in her career.
Gut-Behrami, a skier with a similar skillset to Brignone, was closely behind the Italian's splits all the way down the mountain and remained in touch until two wild jumps at the bottom of the course put paid to her chances of victory.
The three-Globe winner from a season ago is still searching for her first victory of 2024/25, and after a slow start to this campaign, she is seeing positive signs.
"I'm struggling a little bit more compared to last year, (but) it's getting better day by day," Gut-Behrami said. "I don't think I'm skiing that bad, just making a few mistakes. I hope one day I can show one run from the top to the finish the way I want."
The technical turns in the middle section of the course set by Cristolph Alster (AUT) suited Giant Slalom skiers Brignone and Gut-Behrami, but didn't do any favours to the speed specialists.
One of them, however, Olympic Downhill champion Corinne Suter (SUI/Head), took advantage of a clean track and more sunshine than most as the first skier out of the gate to set the early target time and hold on for third place.
"For me it was OK with bib No.1," said Suter, who finished 1.08 seconds behind Brignone. "I had no chance to watch (other skiers), just the forerunner, so I just tried to put my heart in the hands and just ski with my instinct."
Her run was so good, in fact, that Brignone was unsure if she had bettered it.
"When I crossed the finish line I said, 'Maybe, I don't know,' and then I saw the time, because I saw Corinne Suter, and she made really an amazing run, and I was standing before her so I said, 'Maybe today is perfect,'" Brignone said.
Suter, who is still on the comeback from an ACL injury that she suffered in Cortina a year ago, is now returning to some of her best form following a fifth-place finish in Saturday's Downhill. "Now I build confidence with every race," she said.
Among the in-form speed skiers, Kajsa Vickhoff Lie (NOR/Head, sixth), Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic, seventh) and Conny Hütter (AUT/Head, ninth) were all at least 1.2 seconds behind Brignone as they struggled on the technical section.
Lindsey Vonn (USA/Head), in the fifth race of her comeback and her 400th World Cup start, was only half-a-second behind Brignone at the halfway stage but went down on her inside ski on a right-footed turn shortly after and didn't finish.
This weekend was a hiccup in her otherwise impressive return to elite ski racing at age 40, leaving Vonn — as well as every other skier on tour — to only dream of being in the zone that Brignone finds herself in at the moment.
"Finally today I was really skiing free," Brignone said. "I make it as I had it in my head, and this is just amazing when it comes because it's not easy to do."
