Lara Gut-Behrami wins the giant slalom at the finale in Sun Valley, Idaho, and achieves a special milestone, her 100th podium finish in the World Cup. Italy's Federica Brignone secures the small globe.
Lara Gut-Behrami has long been one of the star performers in the alpine circus. Now, with podium place number 100, she has made it into an illustrious circle to which only five skiers have previously belonged. The Americans Mikaela Shiffrin (156 rankings in the top three) and Lindsey Vonn (138), the Austrians Annemarie Moser-Pröll (114) and Renate Götschl (110) and Vreni Schneider (101) have reached this milestone before her. On the men's side, only one trio achieved the same, namely the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (155), the Austrian Marcel Hirscher (138) and his compatriot Marc Girardelli (100), who started for Luxembourg.
Victory after a long struggle
Two days after her magnificent triumph in the super-G and winning the small crystal globe, Lara Gut-Behrami's victory, her tenth in a World Cup giant slalom, was also the perfect end to a winter in which she struggled to find her feet in the basic discipline for a long time. It was also a winter that had got off to a bad start.
The skier from Ticino had to forgo the start in the race above Sölden. After a persistent flu that kept her away from the training slopes for three weeks, she did not feel ready for the difficult task on the Rettenbach glacier and lacked the necessary confidence.
The giant slalom was then a cramp. With 13th, 9th and 6th places in Killington, Vermont, in Semmering in Austria and in Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, Lara Gut-Behrami was a long way off her own expectations. It was only in the last giant slalom before the World Championships that she was back at the top. She came second in Kronplatz in South Tyrol and did the same in the second giant slalom in Sestriere in Piedmont.
Lara Gut-Behrami laid the foundations for World Cup victory number 48, her third in this World Cup season - she also dominated the super-G in Garmisch at the end of January - with the best time in the first run, thanks to which she led the intermediate classification by 45 hundredths of a second. In the decision, she had the better end of the duel with Federica Brignone by 14 hundredths. Knowing that she had an extremely advantageous starting position in the battle for the giant slalom globe, the Italian avoided taking the very last risk.
Wendy Holdener finished 7th in her second discipline, her first ranking in the top ten this winter. Camille Rast, in 7th place after the first run, was eliminated.
The elimination of her rival
An advantageous starting position because the duel for the "giant" crown had already developed very much in Federica Brignone's favor in the first run. Alice Robinson, who had traveled to the USA with a 20-point lead over the Italian, was eliminated after a botched run right from the start. The calculation was quickly made.
13th place would have been enough for Federica Brignone to secure the small globe for a second time in five years. It was Federica Brignone's third crystal trophy this season. She had previously won the awards for the overall and downhill rankings.
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