Stephanie Venier is on the verge of a coup in the World Championship Super-G. The Austrian leads in Saalbach after 30 racers. The Swiss are among the losers in the first women's race.
06.02.2025, 12:44
06.02.2025, 12:54
SDA
Venier started the race with bib number 7 and took ten hundredths off Federica Brignone, who started directly in front of her. The Austrian made the difference in the second sector, where she took just under a quarter of a second from the favorite from Italy.
This is Venier's first medal at a major event, possibly a gold one. The 31-year-old has stood on the podium six times in the super-G in the World Cup, the only time she finished on top in Crans-Montana just under a year ago - even then ahead of Brignone.
As she did two years ago, Kajsa Lie is likely to finish third on the podium - and, as in Méribel, not alone. The Norwegian is tied for 3rd place with American Lauren Macuga. She already shared this with Cornelia Hütter in 2023.
Surprisingly, the Swiss women had nothing to do with the outcome of the race. Although Lara Gut-Behrami came through without any obvious mistakes, she continuously lost time and finished 0.7 seconds behind in 8th intermediate place. The Olympic champion from Beijing and World Champion from Cortina d'Ampezzo missed out on the medals by 46 hundredths.
Malorie Blanc put in a strong performance in her first World Championship race, finishing in 12th place just 1.19 seconds behind the leader. Corinne Suter finished two places behind the Valais skier. The two-time World Championship medal winner in the super-G lost a lot of time, especially in the bottom section of the course. Michelle Gisin did not make it past 17th place.
