Gut-Behrami Takes Second Season GS Win
Battling the worst of the wind, facing a first-run deficit, and competing in the backyard of one of her biggest rivals — none of those things could stop Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) from claiming another victory on Saturday.
The sun was shining overhead as athletes made their way to the top for the second run. Moltzan had a stellar run, putting her atop the leaderboard for a long time, eventually moving up from 15th to eighth overall. Finally Shiffrin came down as the crowd roared her on. She skied into first, thrilling the audience, and eventually moving up two spots to take third for the day and score a podium at home.
The Swiss star won for the second time in as many attempts in giant slalom this season, coming from behind in the American resort of Killington to finish ahead of Alice Robinson (NZL, +0.62s) and local favourite Mikaela Shiffrin (USA, +0.81s).
"I'm just feeling confident now with my GS skiing so everything feels easier," said Gut-Behrami, who also won the season-opener in Sölden last month.
"I'm enjoying what I'm doing, so that helps."
After years of success that have produced 39 World Cup victories, the seventh-highest tally of all-time on the women's tour, Gut-Behrami is still managing to raise the bar.
On Saturday, the 32-year-old became the first Swiss woman to win back-to-back World Cup giant slalom races since Sonja Nef (SUI) did it in 2001, and she got a small monkey off her back in the process.
"It's the first time actually that I'm racing with the red (leader's) bib in GS and I keep it, so that's a nice feeling too," said Gut-Behrami, who also won the Killington giant slalom last season.
"I'm always trying to improve, to find new motivation, to find new things."
Gut-Behrami survived the windiest conditions among the favourites in the first run to post the third-fastest time, and skied a masterful second run to take the lead from Shiffrin before watching on as Sara Hector (SWE) and Robinson failed to dislodge her.
"I didn't feel so good on the top," Gut-Behrami said of her second run. "I felt like I was losing my skis, standing a little bit too much on the back of my skis.
"Then I found the balance and the last part was nice."
Her rivals were seemingly more impressed.
"Lara's (second) run was spectacular," Shiffrin said. "It wasn't perfect but she has the mentality of keeping the speed no matter what, and that's the level that we all want to get to."
Shiffrin also moved up, coming from fifth after a tightly-contested first run to reach the podium in third place despite two small errors in the mid-section of her second run.
Shiffrin skied a solid line in the first run, finding herself in a fifth place position, just .23 seconds from the lead. Moltzan was up next for the team, and nailed the top section to ski into 15th. And one of the most exciting points came when AJ Hurt delivered for her U.S. fans, blazing down into 12th place after running bib 37 on the first run.
“I did not feel good yesterday, but today was a mental adventure and I am really excited to feel some of my best turns in my skiing,” said Shiffrin. “I feel like this was one step closer from Sölden so I am pretty psyched.”
"Today was pretty much an adventure, a mental adventure," she said. "I'm really excited that I was able to feel some of my best turns that I was able to do consistently last year."
While Shiffrin still searches for her spectacular form of a year ago, Robinson is happy to be starting fresh after a difficult couple of seasons.
The 21-year-old had not reached the podium in two-and-a-half years before Saturday, following a blistering start to her career that saw her win three World Cup giant slalom races as a teenager.
"I was just pretty excited to be in that position again to be really mixing it for the top spots," Robinson said.
Robinson outshone all the favourites in the first run to take a surprising lead with bib No. 9, shading Hector by six hundredths of a second.
"I was so happy with my first run, it was a bit unexpected," Robinson admitted.
"And then the second run I wanted to go for it. I definitely had a few mistakes which maybe cost me the win but it was so tight after the first run that anything can happen.
"Second place is amazing."
While Robinson and Gut-Behrami will skip Sunday's slalom and look ahead to more giant slalom racing next weekend in Tremblant, Canada, Shiffrin will take aim at World Cup win No. 90 in front of her home fans.
But with Petra Vlhova (SVK), Wendy Holdener (SUI) and company out to spoil her party, the American star doesn't believe Saturday's podium will help her much on shorter skis.
"Slalom, honestly, it's a different sport," Shiffrin said.
