Brignone Wins In St. Moritz, Noel In Val D' Isere

It was an Italian triumph in St. Moritz super-G, shortened due to wind and under a minute in length, with very high speeds and difficult passages. Courage and technique were needed today in Sankt Moritz. Federica Brignone (ITA) used these two elements to win the Super-G in Engadine and write the history of Italian skiing.

The Italian champion signed a masterpiece on the most complicated passage which had betrayed Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) earlier on, who fell and broke through the two protective nets but fortunately did not suffer any severe injuries. With victory number 17 in the World Cup, Federica became the Italian skier with the most successes, overtaking Deborah Compagnoni.

Her teammate Elena Curtoni (ITA) joined Federica on the podium just 11 hundredths behind, and together they signed the fourth Italian double victory in St. Moritz two years after Goggia-Brignone.

There are 5 Italians in the first nine positions, with Sofia Goggia sixth, Marta Bassino eighth and Francesca Marsaglia ninth.

Mikaela Shiffrin is in the third position in the middle of the Italian heap. She takes her second podium of the season in the Super-G and remains at the top of the Overall ranking with 525 points.

While the sun came out for Sunday’s super-G after a dark day on Saturday, the conditions remained challenging with whipping winds blowing the women around the terrain-heavy course. The gusts were too strong, in fact, that the start had to be moved down to the reserve start and the race was delayed 40 minutes. “It was a bit tricky today!” said Shiffrin. “Especially with some wind, you get these pushes from behind and you speed up like crazy and it’s a little unexpected… I just tried to push my line and trust it and make good turns and stand strong on my skis.”

Shiffrin also battled nerves—wearing bib two meant she didn’t get much of a course report—but she used her knowledge of the terrain from a long course inspection and the feeling from her skis to ski intelligently down the course. The race gave her a second super-G podium in two days (translating to 120 more valuable points in the overall standings), and her seventh career World Cup super-G podium in only 18 starts. Four of those podiums have been in St. Moritz.

Breezy Johnson also scored points for the second time in the weekend, taking 24th. Jackie Wiles finished 39th, Nina O’Brien 40th, and Tricia Mangan 43rd. AJ Hurt, Isabella Wright, and Keely Cashman did not finish, but all three are thankfully OK.

Shiffrin leads the overall World Cup standings, with 525 points ahead of Italy's Sofia Goggia (435 points), and Slovakia's Petra Vlhova—who has opted to focus on tech events this year (340 points). Johnson is currently sitting in sixth in the standings, with 213 points.

Fourth was a fantastic Alice Robinson (NZL), and fifth was the first of the Austrians, Ramona Siebenhofer.

For the men Hometown hero Clement Noel of France got his ninth World Cup win, with Kristoffer Jakobsen of Sweden taking his first World Cup podium in second place. Filip Zubcic of Croatia also grabbed his first World Cup podium in third.

Luke Winters skied into the FIS World Cup points in the first slalom race of the 2021-22 season, taking 25th in Val d’Isere, France.

Hard snow and sunshine made for great conditions in Val d’Isere and the up-and-coming U.S. men’s slalom team were stoked for some racing. “Dudes were fired up,” said Men’s World Cup Slalom Coach Ryan Wilson. “Everybody has been skiing well in training. It was nice that Jakobsen was second. We were training with him before and we know where we stand with him. That’s a confidence booster for all of them.”

The U.S. men’s slalom team has been skiing strong so far this season with Winters, Jett Seymour, and Ben Ritchie headlining the team. Seymour skied well in his first run, but got tangled up in a complicated combination at the bottom and skied out just before the finish. Ritchie went down on his hip, but had fast splits below the mistake, showing that he has it in him to also make a second run. Alex Leever and Garret Driller also started but did not qualify for a second run.

Winters had a couple of major bobbles on his first run, but had enough speed to ski into the top 30 and snag a second run. He skied conservatively second run to finish 25th, scoring World Cup points and lowering his bib number for future races. Winters also found the points twice last year, including a top 20 in Chamonix, France, and he knows he has more in him heading into the Olympic season.