Gut-Behrami Grabs Eighth Win Of The Season
Gut-Behrami is having the best World Cup season of her life, the 32-year-old Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) may be entering the twilight of her career but according to both her rivals and the statistics the Swiss flier, who is on course for a record-equalling four Crystal Globes this season, is getting better and better with every race.
After finishing runner-up to Gut-Behrami in a thrillingly close Audi FIS World Cup women’s super-G in Kvitfjell on Saturday, Conny Huetter (AUT) could only stand and applaud.
“With Lara at the moment, second is good,” said Huetter, whose own strong performance keeps her just 25 points behind Gut-Behrami in the race to top the season-long super-G standings.
Out of the gate eighth, Gut-Behrami not only had a lightening Ester Ledecka (CZE) time to chase, she also had to do it through fog.
But neither seemed to bother the serene, red-suited, red-bibbed skier. Typically dynamic and low in the tuck, Gut-Brehrami crucially got quicker and quicker through the lower half of the Olympiabakken to finish in a time of one minute 33.52 seconds.
Both Huetter and 2022 Olympic super-G silver medallist Miriam Puchner (AUT) were significantly quicker on the top section with conditions ever changing, but neither could match the indefatigable Swiss star through the lung-burning finish. Huetter finishing 0.12 seconds behind with her teammate just one-hundredth of a second further back.
“There’s no strategy, it’s just I am trying to enjoy more what I am doing,” said Gut-Behrami after her 45th career World Cup win, which her puts her one shy of matching Renate Götschl (AUT) in the all-time list of women’s champions.
“I know I am not going to race a 1000 races more. So, I am trying to enjoy the way I am skiing, the good feeling I have and to have fun while I am skiing.”
The non-strategy strategy is certainly working. Her third super-G triumph of the season adds on to four giant slalom wins and a downhill triumph, all of which represents her best ever World Cup haul – and there are seven races left.
“It’s amazing, I am really happy about that,” she said of her remarkable efforts. “I never expected to be still racing at 32 and to be that consistent is great.”
Her work not only leaves her narrowly clear at the top of the super-G standings with two races left, but also pulls her 305 points clear of Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) at the top of the overall standings.
Shiffrin is set to return from injury for next weekend’s giant slalom and slalom races in Are, Sweden – the piste where she won her record-breaking 87th World Cup victory 12 months ago – but it will take a similarly gasp-inducing effort for Shiffrin to catch Gut-Behrami.
Also ahead in the GS standings (135-point lead) and the downhill (19 points clear), Gut-Behrami is on course to equal Lindsey Vonn (2009/10, 2011/12), Tina Maze (2012/13) and Mikaela Shiffrin (2018/19) as the only female skiers to ever claim four Crystal Globes in a season.
Huetter, who “loves” Kvitfjell, will be aiming to stop her in Sunday’s super-G before heading to the World Cup finals on home snow in Saalbach (16-24 March).
“We have a tough fight. Not only for us but also for everyone watching it’s really nice to see,” Huetter said. “And we will have a nice showdown in Saalbach, at home.”
Puchner will also head home in fine form. Stunningly quick on the top section, she nearly claimed much more than a second super-G third-place finish of the season.
Not that she minded too much.
“Yes, I lost the line in the last part. I was too far removed from the perfect line (but) I am very happy, the race felt quite good,” Puchner said.
Keira Weidle (GER) so nearly upset not just the podium but Gut-Behrami’s victory parade. Up in the first three splits, only a late mistake on the flats prevented the German, 20th out of the gate, from a truly spectacular result. But fourth, 0.29 seconds off the champion elect skier, still represents the super-G run of her career.
A huge roar carried Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR) all the way down the mountain in her first appearance since announcing that she will hang up her racing skis at the end of the season.
While the fog might have cleared, there was to be no miracle on home snow for the 31-year-old. After a strong start, the double Olympic medallist faded slightly to finish 12th.
For the Americans Lauren Macuga clocked yet another personal best result in the 2023-24 season, this time in the Kvitfjell, Norway super-G that replaced the scheduled initial downhill on Saturday, March 2. Macuga finished seventh overall, her second top-10 result in a World Cup, besting her result in the Zauchensee super-G earlier in the season.
She started in bib 4, another first for the 21 year old, as in the past, she's only ever skied closer to the back of the pack, never higher than bib 20. When Macuga came to the finish, she was ecstatic.
"Skiing in the top 10 is where it's at," she exclaimed. "Oh my god, it was so fun. You don't realize how much of a game-changer a clean course is. I'm used to running in the back of the pack, and it's so nice to run a full, clean course where you can just go. You don't get to watch as many racers. So you have to trust your plan and put everything out there."
Having gone much earlier than she was used to, Macuga initially was just hoping to hang on to a top 15 finish to further support her mission to qualify for World Cup Finals in Saalbach at the end of the season, where only the top 25 athletes in each discipline qualify.
Seventh makes a strong argument for Macuga, who now sits comfortably in 17th overall. If she remains high enough in the rankings by the end of the day on Sunday, she will be heading to her first World Cup finals.
Bella Wright made a mistake in the same section of the course as Macuga, but had a later bib number and couldn't quite make up the time she lost. She ended the day in 18th.
"You have to charge in this course," said Macuga. "You absolutely have to be on it and give it everything you got out there. Never let up, otherwise you'll lose your speed coming into the flats and then you're out."
